This article was originally published on TheFunPost
Even during times when everyone is traveling, there are still unbelievable and exciting sights that you'll simply never get to see. This is because some things are so rare and so hard to find that you would have to search for months, if not years just to catch a glimpse. Can you imagine putting your life, your career, and your family on hold to see something as marvelous as an albino raccoon? It certainly is a sight, but we wouldn't recommend pumping the breaks on everything. Don't worry though, all those amazing sights are free to see, right here! Scroll down and marvel at the wonders that our world has to offer, as you see the photos that few others have ever been fortunate enough to look at.
Not A 3D Printed Ice Crystal
These large ice crystals in Switzerland are formed in the absence of super-cooled liquid. It looks like someone took it out of Superman's Fortress of Solitude.
The molecular structure of frozen water causes that hexagonal shape, the molecules line up almost end to end, which is why despite cold temperatures usually making things contract, freezing water actually expands. It's also why snowflakes always have hexagonal symmetry.
Ghost Heart
No, this is not the heart of a ghost. At the Texas Heart Institute, Doris Taylor is working on developing a regenerative method for heart reconstruction. She pioneered the creation of "ghost hearts." A ghost heart is obtained by washing away all donor cells until you're left with a protein scaffold. This ghost heart is ready to be injected with a transplant recipient's stem cells so a new heart. In other words, a new heart can be grown that won’t be rejected.
This kind of medical miracle really gives us hope for the future. We hope this changes someone's life.
Baby Flamingo With Its "Pretend Mum"
This baby flamingo lacks its pink color because parent flamingos produce bright red milk in their digestive tracts and feed their young. That's how baby flamingos grow and develop their signature pink feathers. Interesting, right?
However, adult flamingos feed on blue-green and red algae containing beta carotene (a reddish-orange pigment and an organic chemical). Their digestive system extracts the pigments, which dissolves into their fats and then into feathers. In other words, you are what you eat.
So The Mystery Is Deeper Than We Thought!
Ancient Polynesians carved the mysterious Easter Island Heads between A.D 1100 and 1500. Although their traditional name is 'moai', people know them as those incredible giant heads. When it was discovered that giant heads have bodies as well, it shocked a lot of people.
If they open one of the bodies, will they find organs? Egyptians preserved the bodies with canopic jars (four of them) to safely keep organs: the stomach, intestines, lungs, and liver. They did it because of a belief that the organs would be needed in the afterlife.
An Intact Human Nervous System
Two medical students in Kirksville, Missouri, were given a unique challenge and they had the 'nerve' to complete it. The challenge was to dissect the nervous system of a cadaver (corpse) starting from the brain downward but making sure they leave the entire system in one piece.
It took over 1,500 hours to complete the process. This extraordinary display is located at the Museum of Osteopathic Medicine at A.T. Still University (ATSU) in Kirksville.
Not Ancient Ruins
No, these weird structures were not built by aliens or even humans. These are grains of salt under an electron microscope that look more like mysterious Dungeons & Dragons dice.
As salt crystals are cubic, there are grains of salt that appear to be made up of overlapping cubes.
The Amazing Universe
These are auroras of different planets. If it wasn't labeled would you think that these were all different scenes out of some sci-fi movie?
So an aurora is a breathtaking cosmic light display. As the sun emits a constant stream of charged particles or solar wind into the solar system, these winds reach a planet and interact with the magnetic field surrounding it and compress the field into a teardrop shape that can even be seen in space.
No Need For A CT Scan Or MRI
You can see every organ in the glass frog. Although glass frogs are primarily lime green, the abdominal skin of some members of this family is transparent. Scientists are not really sure about the reason behind their see-through skin, but they think that it is meant to resemble eggs and confuse predators.
You can find reticulated glass frogs in the rainforest of Costa Rica, Colombia, Panama, and Ecuador.
A Zebra With More Fur?
Did you know this is what a tiger's skin looks like when it is shaved? Most of you were 'today years old' when you learned it.
By the way, each tiger has a unique pattern of stripes, which are ideal for camouflage. Looks like a tiger truly can't change its stripes.
One Of Nature's Most Beautiful Shells
This is an agate shell. As minerals grew in the voids of the shell, they replaced the shell too. However, the beauty of the shell remains the same.
Agate shells are not rare and you can find them on West Coast beaches. They could be used as the best earrings ever.
A Globe For Blind People
Globes are already cool, but this one is a thousand times better. Unlike average globes, this one allows people who have lost their sight to still check out the geography of our Earth.
Blind people had no formal way to learn geography for centuries. But in 1830, an engineer and craftsman named Stephen Preston Ruggles created a Boston map with the streets, roads, and bridges with wooden divots. In 1837, Samuel Gridley Howe created a method of embossing maps.
Don't Eat These Biscuits
Did you know that some five-pointed starfish (aka sea stars) can come out square due to birth defects? There are about 2,000 species of starfish or maybe more. As starfish use filtered seawater to pump nutrients through their nervous system, they don't have a brain or blood.
Most of you already know that they have regenerating power. But unlike Deadpool, they regenerate a lost limb in about a year.
An Albino Raccoon
This cute albino raccoon looks like a doggo or piglet with lots of hair. Did you know that one raccoon named Rebecca lived in The White House? She was kept as a pet by US President Calvin Coolidge and First Lady Grace Coolidge
We all know raccoons for their bandit black and white look, but this cutie is a rare one. As albino raccoons lack camouflage, they find it difficult to hide from predators and have a shorter lifespan.
Not An Alien Spaceship
This photo was taken one million miles away from the surface of the Earth. It shows the dark side of the moon passing in front of our planet.
A NASA camera aboard the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) captured this stunning photo.
That's How You Build Your Immune System
These are the microbes left behind from the handprint of an 8-year-old boy after playing outside. Instead of not allowing your children to play outside, you should know that most germs don't harm us. The immune system protects the body against many infectious germs.
Many doctors would actually say that this is actually good for your kid as getting in touch with most of these tint critters builds your child’s immune system and prevents them from getting ill quickly or developing allergies.
Do You Want To Shake It?
A snow-covered net roof of the aviary in the zoo looks like an enormous igloo. In 1904, the world's first walk-through aviary was built for the St. Louis World's fair by the Smithsonian Institute. At the time, it was the largest of its kind. The Saint Louis Zoo bought it.
Aviary construction for zoos requires a lot of veterinary involvement due to concerns about the animals' health.
The Broken Fort
In the Irish town-land of Knockaun, you can find a colossal, 50 meter high, sea-stack called Dun Briste (The Broken Fort). The rock formation and surrounding cliffs were formed about 350 million years ago.
In 1980, three scientists spent a couple of hours on the summit to examine the remains of the buildings and plant life that still survive there.
Giant Amethyst Geode
Geodes are hollow rocks that occur in certain volcanic and sedimentary rocks. They are common in some formations in the United States. They are also common in Uruguay, Brazil, Namibia, and Mexico.
According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the largest amethyst geode is 3 m (9 ft. 10 in) long, 1.8 m (5 ft. 10 in) wide and 2.2 m (7 ft. 2 in) high, and weighs 13,000 kg (28,660 lb.). It is displayed in Shandong Tianyu Museum of Natural History in Shandong, China.
Not A Head Scratcher
Don't be fooled by this picture that looks like a head-scratcher or some alien. It is a processed image of an actual virus. Its level of creepiness does not disappoint.
It comes from the family of bacteriophages, or phages for short. Frederick Twort discovered them in 1915 and Félix d’Herelle in 1917. At that time, scientists didn't know how phages worked as they were used to treat cholera. It was in 1940 when scientists used an electron microscope to understand how phages work. This virus infects bacteria and cannot reproduce or survive without it.
No Wonder Why They Always Look Stiff
If you thought a reporter's job is so glamorous, think again. There is a receiver for the in-ear piece, which allows her to hear the team. There's a transmitter used for her clip-on microphone. All of the equipment is fastened in a way to ensure viewers wouldn't notice anything.
By the way, the reporter is so pretty. Her name is Bernadette Sembrano and she is also quite a talented newscaster.
Way Too Much Leg Space
This is what an empty Boeing 787, also known as the 'Dreamliner,' looks like. All it needs is some plants and bean bag chairs! Oh, and some groovy music as well.
It looks like a corridor in a space station. Like from 2001 A Space Odyssey. By the way, the Boeing 787 seats anywhere from 242 to 335 passengers.
Go Ahead, Lick The Wall
Have you ever wondered where salt comes from? Salt in the ocean comes from two sources: runoff from the land and openings in the seafloor. This is what a salt mine looks like from the inside. Before the invention of heavy machinery, mining salt was dangerous and expensive.
In Roman times, salt on the table was a mark of wealth. Salt was considered so valuable that a soldier's pay was originally in salt. This is where the word 'salary' comes from.
No Worries About Getting Split Ends
This photo might trigger some people's trypophobia. It is not some strange creature recently discovered, rather it is what an elephant's tail looks like up close. Elephants use their tails to communicate, and wag them to signify excitement and happiness (just like dogs).
Moreover, baby elephants sometimes hold on to adults' tail while walking for security and guidance on long walks. And yes, the tail is also used to keep away annoying flies.
Claustrophobia At Its Best
Claustrophobic people should just skip the photo because this is what the inside of a spacesuit looks like. Want to know some interesting facts about spacesuits?
Well, a spacesuit weighs around 280 pounds (127 kg) on the ground and it takes about 45 minutes to put on a spacesuit. The reason why spacesuits are white is that this color reflects heat in space where temperatures can be over 275 degrees Fahrenheit (135°C).
Walk The Talk
In movies, we see actors driving cars at high speeds like a piece of cake. In reality, they're just busy 'performing' while the real driver is on top of the vehicle. This photo is from behind the scenes of the movie Baby Driver.
Unlike other films, 95 percent of the movie was shot in-camera, with CGI utilized for just a few touch-ups and quick shots.
Darkness is Spreading
This is what an eclipse looks like from space. It looks like Earth is being overtaken by darkness (just like in The Lord of the Rings. Don't judge.)
This photo was first uploaded onto the Astronomy Picture of The Day by the crew on the former Mir space station. It is estimated that the shadow moved across the Earth at nearly 2000 kilometers per hour. Wow!
A Balloon's Worst Nightmare!
This dead cactus decomposed and left only the spines behind. Now, Hollywood is making a movie on it titled: Attack of The Zombie Cactus.
According to the owner of this cactus, the wild cactus has over 2-4" long spines. To us, it looks like a bunch of zip ties.
Thank You Berry Much
This is a macro photograph of the strawberry's surface. It shows the individual seeds on the skin.
By the way, strawberries are not berries at all. Scientifically speaking, a banana is a berry.
So That's Why Their Mouths Are Small
Did you know that sperm whales are the largest-toothed predators on Earth? Interestingly, they do not have teeth in their upper jaw but have sockets that their lower teeth fit into.
Sperm whales have 20-26 pairs of cone-shaped teeth along their lower jaw. As their primary food item is the giant squid, they dive as deep as 3,280 feet in search of squid to eat. It can hold its breath for up to 90 minutes on such dives.
Jurassic Park Theme Playing In Our Heads
This fossilized dinosaur footprint in Utah lies on The Bull Canyon Dinosaur Track Trail.
The prints are left in Entrada Sandstone and it seems like the dinosaur ran off the edge of the existing cliff, possibly in an attempt to escape from its predator. By the way, this fossilized dinosaur foot is about 200 million years old.
Does She Get Charged Extra for Manicures?
This lady has six fingers on each hand. Akshat Saxena from northern India holds the Guinness world record for having the most fingers and toes. He has six fingers on each hand and 10 toes on each foot. That's a total of 32 digits.
So, when someone lets you take a picture of their hands with six fingers on each, you don't ask questions and take a photo without wasting any time. We think it is cool how normal they look. None of them stick out or look odd.
"Nonbinary Doesn't Exist In Natu...Oh"
This butterfly is a Bilateral Gynandromorph. What's so special about it, you might ask.
Well, it is half male and half female. We think that this should be the non-binary mascot.
Want To Crack Them Open
This is a clutch of dinosaur eggs. We think Ross from the sitcom Friends would lose his mind over them.
By the way, female dinosaurs laid multiple eggs at the same time, which means a whole clutch of eggs (15 to 20) at a single sitting.
Want To Eat An Omelette?
This is how a chicken laid an egg and tied it with a bow. It's like the chicken couldn't decide whether to poop or lay an egg.
According to the Guinness World Records, the largest egg was laid in 1956 in Vineland, New Jersey and weighed more than 16 ounces.
The Roof of Notre-Dame
On 15 April 2019, a structure fire broke out beneath the roof of Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral in Paris. The COVID-19 pandemic has slowed restoration work on Notre-Dame Cathedral. Hopefully, it will be finished soon.
Did you know that the bells of Notre-Dame were removed in the late 18th century and melted down to make cannons? Only the colossal 1681 bourdon called Emmanuel was left alone.
Another Reason To Love Norway
This is hands down one of the most beautiful soccer stadiums in the world. It is in Henningsvaer, Norway.
We feel for the poor ball boys. Norwegian triathlon must be like: Swim. Play a game of soccer. Score a goal. Find parking.
Not a Stoner
You're looking at an eye with stitches after a full-thickness cornea transplant. Did you know that the human eye differentiates about 10 million different colors?
There are over 107 million cells in each individual eye and the eye blinks an average of 4,200,000 times a year.
Bee Different
When a purely golden bee lands on your car, consider yourself lucky. There are over 20,000 bee species that can be found on every continent except Antarctica.
A bee produces only a teaspoon of honey in her lifetime. If the queen bee dies due to any reason, workers select a young larva as the new queen and feed it a special food called royal jelly.
Necessity is The Mother of Invention
What you're looking at is one of four heads made from soap, cotton, and human hair placed by Alcatraz prisoners. Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary was a maximum-security facility located on an island in San Francisco Bay.
Three inmates were able to escape in 1962 and left the island in a raft. None of them were caught and some believe they survived. However, the FBI officially closed the investigation in 1979, concluding that the men drowned. But did they?
A Split-Colored Lobster
This split-colored lobster has coloring that occurs once in every 50 million lobsters.
Interestingly, this lobster displays a condition known as Gynandromorphism. It means the brown side is the male and the blue side is the female.