We're always learning about the world, even long after leaving classrooms behind. Or rather, you could safely say that the world becomes our classroom after school teaches us how to learn in it.
And it's a big world out there! Even when you think you've seen it all, chances are you haven't seen nearly as much as you'd think.
There's a spot in Iceland where the tectonic plates come within an arm's reach of each other.
This is actually a giant salamander that crawled out of Kamogawa River in Kyoto. It definitely looks much bigger in the first picture than it actually is, but it's still startling huge, bigger than any salamander I've ever come across.
Located in the Canary Islands, it's unlike any other vineyard most of us has ever seen before, with the vines growing in holes dug out of volcanic soil.
It looks like the skull has been encased in something, but what you're actually seeing here is the man's chainmail armor that he clearly died wearing in battle.
The bagworm moth caterpillar will collect pieces of twigs to make themselves little log cabin-style hiding spots.
It must have gotten cross-pollinated or something, but I feel like it's odd for it to grow with such straight lines separating the colors like that.
Can you imagine being in a bike race and seeing this guy just soar past you effortlessly while your legs pump away? It's just a matter of physics and aerodynamics, of course, which is kind of crazy.
It definitely looks like he's about to give some sort of live speech to the people of America. But in fact he's sitting as still as possible so he could be scanned by all 8 cameras and 50 LED lights.
A branch somehow manage to grow right through it, like a nail.
This happy customer is a violet carpenter bee, and they pretty much stick to Europe and North Africa, which is why those of us in North America aren't very familiar with them.
A burn in the skin has revealed the lower layer of dermis, the level at which tattoo ink actually sits, which makes the colors appear much more vibrant than it looks with the top layer of skin over it.
As one Reddit user pointed out, these are not waves from the ocean that have froze in motion. Instead, these are massive frozen forms that have been created over time from ice that has been compacted and uplifted by glaciation, then shaped through exposure to the elements. The result are these incredible wave-like icicles.
One Reddit user helpfully pointed out that this is likely the cause of snow that put pressure on the tree's trunks when they were young, resulting in these unique forms.
It's not really a toy, but a keepsake, as a glassblower made it from cremated remains.
I guess it makes sense that they might be caught up in the motion of the ocean, but it's still not where you'd expect to see them.
Although we're used to pretty, white and pale-pink lotus flowers, there exists a gothic black bloom that was once feared by any who came across it, believing its scent to cause black, nightmarish dreams.
Somehow they managed to grow directly into each other. Thankfully, this person's dentist said they shouldn't cause complications. "I feel pretty special ‘cause he also said it’s mega rare and he’s never seen this before," the uploader wrote.
This is absolutely beautiful, and makes you wonder if maybe our own universe is being examined by someone else through an opal, a la the end of Men in Black where all universes are revealed to be contained inside marbles.
Whoa.
A team of scientists, engineers, and balloon pilots successfully re-created the house, hoisted aloft by weather balloons.
Aldabra giant tortoises, like the one we see here, usually live between 80 to 120 years. This one, named Jonathan, was hatched in 1832 and is currently 187 years old.
Known as Chimera cats, these felines occur because their cells contain two types of DNA, which is caused by two embryos fusing together. Thus, two different fur colors and also, notice, two different eye colors as well.
When they reach their full height, baobab trees will grow out instead of up, expanding by up to 1 cm every year.
While this alone is interesting enough, the really interesting facts are that these sperm whales only sleep for about 10 to 15 minutes at a time and take various naps throughout the day. What I personally didn't know was possible is that while they sleep, they stop moving and breathing completely.
This is in an effort to prevent the mistreatment of animals for the purpose of human entertainment. You still get a magnificent show, hold the animal abuse.
These beautifully vibrant insects are known as Katydid, a breed of crickets so rare that there’s only a 1 in 500 chance of finding one. Their eye-catching color is the result of a genetic mutation known as "erythrism".
It's all part and parcel working with a laser cutter, apparently. The pattern only showed up when some ash settled on the back of this person's hand.
How small is it? Well, to put it in perspective, that's a single grain of white rice sitting beside it. Yeah, it's that small.
The tech geniuses took over a solar array and arranged more than 107,000 mirrors to reflect moonlight to create this stunning tribute.
With wire, of course. The clasps are attached on either side of the break with some glue and then the wire gets threaded through and used to pull the crack together to help it heal.
Known as "whale fall", these skeletons can sustain an ecosystem for decades, as every part of the deceased creature is consumed. Even their bones are eaten by deep sea worms.
The weirdest thing is that only the water in the photo was affected, possibly because the camera's rgb sensor was confused by the motion.
Like this photo, where you can see the reflection of a lightning bolt on the water, but there's no lightning bolt in the sky.
When panorama modes mess up, it's usually funny, not artistic. But because this was taken during a trippy laser light show at a concert, we get this crazy display.
The frisbee is still in this guy's hand as he throws it, but in the shadow, his hand has already released it. It's all about the shutter timing and how it scans the lens from top to bottom.
