THE DOOR TO HELL
Found burning in the barren wasteland of the desert of northern Turkmenistan, Central Asia, is a fiery pit called the Darvaza gas crater, commonly known as the ‘Door to Hell’. This hellish 30-metre-deep crater is believed to have been burning since 1971, although how it collapsed and was ignited remains a mystery. What we do know is that the crater remains alight due to a large amount of methane gas that’s being naturally pumped at high pressures from below the desert surface. Turkmenistan sits on the sixth-largest reservoir of natural gas in the world, and some geologists believe that there is enough fuel beneath the crater to allow the fire to rage for another 20 years.
INSIDE A VOLVOX COLONY
Volvox are free-floating algae that live in freshwater systems. As single cells, volvox are equipped with two long, tail-like filaments called flagellum which allow them to swim. These individual cells group together to create volvox colonies and form a sphere, as shown in this image. Colonies can be made of up to 60,000 cells and move as one using their outward-facing flagellum. Each individual volvox can produce its own food through photosynthesis and uses photosensitive structures called ‘eyespots’ - seen as small green specks - to detect the best places for light. The internal spheres are daughter colonies which are filled with reproducing volvox and will eventually break away as their own colony.