It doesn't say anything about watching these over time. Do the rings move? Do they fill in after a year and new ones form? It's not like all the grass is in rings.
The Namibia desert is decorated by thousands of mysterious circles
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Re: The Namibia desert is decorated by thousands of mysterious circles
#32Not sure if it's just my browser that was missing them, but the article could've really used some images. You can see the fairy circles in this Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairy_circle_(Africa) Or this Google Images link: https://www.google.com.au/search?q=namibia+fairy+circle&safe...
Maybe their mobile site doesn't have any images? The article is full of pictures. 1. http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/wwfeatures/624_351/images/live/p0/26... 2. http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/wwfeatures/624_351/images/live/p0/26... 3. http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/wwfeatures/624_351/images/live/p0/26... 4. http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/wwfeatures/624_351/images/live/p0/26... 5. http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/wwfeatures/624_351/images/live/p0/26...
I see them on a jailbroken Ipad.
Re: The Namibia desert is decorated by thousands of mysterious circles
#33These remind me of the "Devils Stomping Ground" circle in NC.
http://www.hauntspot.com/haunt/usa/north-carolina/devils-sto...
Re: The Namibia desert is decorated by thousands of mysterious circles
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
Maybe their mobile site doesn't have any images? The article is full of pictures. 1. http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/wwfeatures/624_351/images/live/p0/26... 2. http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/wwfeatures/624_351/images/live/p0/26... 3. http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/wwfeatures/624_351/images/live/p0/26... 4. http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/wwfeatures/624_351/images/live/p0/26... 5. http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/wwfeatures/624_351/images/live/p0/26...
Couldn't see any of those. It was Ghostery blocking them Brightcove widgets.
> It was Ghostery blocking them Brightcove widgets.
In the Web 17.0, using plain tags for images just doesn't scale no more. Better rely on a framework for that arcane picture stuff.
Re: The Namibia desert is decorated by thousands of mysterious circles
#35BBC themselves previously reported termites being responsible for this: http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-21970408
The new article says:
Tschinkel dug for termites in one or two circles and returned in 2007 to investigate, and hopefully prove, his hypothesis. “It took us about three days to establish, without a doubt, that termites were absolutely nothing to do with this,” Tschinkel says.
Re: The Namibia desert is decorated by thousands of mysterious circles
#36“There is a tremendous sense of excitement that there is something really interesting going on and we want to know what that is,” says Professor Don Cowan, director of the Centre for Microbial Ecology and Genomics at the University of Pretoria, South Africa. “It is a desire to understand the system. What is going there? What is happening?”
Can't think of a better summary of science!
Re: The Namibia desert is decorated by thousands of mysterious circles
#37Sure looks like Turing patterns that you get with Reaction-Diffusion simulations. See http://pmneila.github.io/jsexp/grayscott/ and select "holes"
Little circles in an apparently random pattern? Obviously, it's an anti-counterfeiting measure.
Re: The Namibia desert is decorated by thousands of mysterious circles
#38Sure looks like Turing patterns that you get with Reaction-Diffusion simulations. See http://pmneila.github.io/jsexp/grayscott/ and select "holes"
"However, yet another recent theory proposes that grasses competing for water and nutrients - limited resources in the Namib desert - create the circles, explaining why they never overlap."
Maybe this model could be used to analyze this hypothesis.
Re: The Namibia desert is decorated by thousands of mysterious circles
#39If you're lazy, click here to see it on Google Maps: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Namibia/@-24.9646371,15.93... You'll have to switch to satellite-view yourself.
Direct link to sat view: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Namibia/@-24.9646371,15.93...
There is a trail or "circles" from a spot in the top left corner going east and a little north.
Re: The Namibia desert is decorated by thousands of mysterious circles
#40To the man with a hammer, everything looks like a nail:
"Some theories are still holding strong though, and Cowan jokes that each scientist sees the solution in terms of their own particular area of expertise: the insect biologists think the circles are created by ants or termites, the plant physiologists think it’s grasses, and the chemists think it’s gases. Cowan, a microbial ecologist, proves no exception."