This Week's Most Frequently Viewed Images

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Vices and Virtues, part of the Stuart Collection and University of California, San Diego (UCSD). Artist Bruce Naumann created Vices and Virtues in 1988 along the top of the Charles Lee Powell Structural Systems Laboratory at UCSD. Vices and virtues named in alternating neon light blink bizarrely around the building, lighting the night sky at UCSD. Very odd, La Jolla

Drift kelp has washed ashore on a sandy California beach. Winter brings large surf and increased wave energy which often rips giant kelp from the ocean bottom, so that it floats down current, often washing ashore, Macrocystis pyrifera, Santa Barbara

Clouds held back by island crest, near the north end of Guadalupe Island off the coast of Baja California, Mexico, Guadalupe Island (Isla Guadalupe)

Unidentified, San Elijo Lagoon, Encinitas, California

Craig OConnor and his pending spearfishing world record North Pacific yellowtail (77.4 pounds), taken on a breathold dive with a band-power speargun near Abalone Point. Guadalupe Island is home to enormous yellowtail. The three most recent spearfishing world records for Northern yellowtail have been taken at Guadalupe. July 2004, Seriola lalandi, Guadalupe Island (Isla Guadalupe)

Mexican hogfish, adult male showing fleshy bump on head, Bodianus diplotaenia, Guadalupe Island (Isla Guadalupe)

Kelp plants reaching surface, spreading out, Macrocystis pyrifera, Santa Barbara Island

Sheephead wrasse, adult male coloration, Semicossyphus pulcher, Guadalupe Island (Isla Guadalupe)

The OMER 5 human-powered submarine, designed, built and operated by Montreal, Canadas École de Technologie Supérieure (University of Quebec) engineering students. The submersible is 16 feet long and has two people inside powering and piloting the sub. Made of high tech composite materials and containing networked computers, the OMER 5 has reached a speed of nearly 7 knots underwater, a world record for human-powered submarines, Offshore Model Basin, Escondido, California

The Pipe Organ, a formation of calcite flowstone and cave curtains, Crystal Cave, Sequoia Kings Canyon National Park, California

Many stalactites hang from the ceiling -- and a huge stalagmite has grown up from the floor -- of the Dome Room. The formation was named for its resemblence to the Capital Dome in Washington D.C, Crystal Cave, Sequoia Kings Canyon National Park, California

Northern elephant seal, underwater, San Benito Islands, Mirounga angustirostris, San Benito Islands (Islas San Benito)

Juvenile northern elephant seal warily watches the photographer, underwater, Mirounga angustirostris, Guadalupe Island (Isla Guadalupe)

A school of large Pacific jack mackerel, Trachurus symmetricus, Guadalupe Island (Isla Guadalupe)

Warty sea cucumber on rocky reef amid kelp forest, Parastichopus parvimensis, San Clemente Island

$Detail within the Mandelbrot set fractal. This detail is found by zooming in on the overall Mandelbrot set image, finding edges and buds with interesting features. Fractals are complex geometric shapes that exhibit repeating patterns typified by self-similarity, or the tendency for the details of a shape to appear similar to the shape itself. Often these shapes resemble patterns occurring naturally in the physical world, such as spiraling leaves, seemingly random coastlines, erosion and liquid waves. Fractals are generated through surprisingly simple underlying mathematical expressions, producing subtle and surprising patterns. The basic iterative expression for the Mandelbrot set is z = z-squared + c, operating in the complex (real, imaginary) number set, Mandelbrot set$

Humpback whale blowhole, Megaptera novaeangliae, Maui

Epaulette shark. The epaulette shark is primarily nocturnal, hunting for crabs, worms and invertebrates by crawling across the bottom on its overlarge fins, Hemiscyllium ocellatum

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