Gallery: Worms, Fractals and Mars: Top Science Image Galleries of 2010
DAVID SHALE01new-marine-species
In addition to our [most popular news stories of 2010](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/01/top-stories-gallery/), some of our readers' favorite Wired Science posts this year were image galleries. Earth from space, the world's oldest trees, and painfully cute baby animals were among the year's most popular image collections. 10. Crazy-Looking New Deep-Sea Creatures ---------------------------------------- July 6 More than 300 hours of diving along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge contributed 10 possible new species to the [Census of Marine Life](http://www.coml.org/). The animals are pretty weird, but also beautiful such as the scale worm pictured above. Three of the species, which look like colorful wavy worms, belong to a group of creatures called *Enteropneust*, believed to be the evolutionary link between backbone and invertebrate animals. Previously only a few specimens of the group, from the Pacific Ocean, were known to science. [See the full gallery](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/07/gallery_marine_species/). *Image: David Shale*
02fractals-in-nature
9. Earth's Most Stunning Natural Fractal Patterns ------------------------------------------------- September 10 The mathematical beauty of fractals is that infinite complexity is formed with relatively simple equations. By iterating or repeating fractal-generating equations many times, random outputs create beautiful patterns that are unique, yet recognizable. In this gallery, we gathered some of the best examples of fractals in nature, including broccoli (above), lightning, peacock feathers and the Grand Canyon. [See the full gallery](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/09/fractal-patterns-in-nature/). *Image: Flickr/[Tin.G](http://www.flickr.com/photos/tin-g/55563889/).*
03strange-clouds
8. Weird Clouds Look Even Better From Space ------------------------------------------- May 12 Our collections of satellite and astronaut photos of Earth from space are always popular, and we know you like weird clouds too. So, it's no surprise you liked a bunch of weird clouds seen from space. Some of our favorites are the wakes left in sheets of clouds by islands, such as the one above, known as von Kármán vortex streets. [See the full gallery](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/05/gallery-clouds/).
0470s-epa-photos
7. The '70s Photos That Made Us Want to Save Earth -------------------------------------------------- March 11 Two years after Richard Nixon created the Environmental Protection Agency, the new institution sent out 100 photographers to document the nation's environment writ large. Now, those photos have made it out of the root cellar of the National Archive and onto Flickr Commons, where they are getting a wider viewing than they've ever received. We chose some of our favorites from the first group released of what will eventually become [a 15,000-photo set from the Documerica project](http://www.flickr.com/photos/usnationalarchives/collections/72157620729903309/) available online to the public. [See the full gallery](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/03/epa-gallery/). *Image: Marc St. Gil/National Archives and Records Administration*
05strange-places-on-mars
6. Strange Places on Mars: What Do You Want to See Next? -------------------------------------------------------- January 25 Of the thousands of images NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has captured, we rounded up some of the weirdest and most beautiful for this gallery. The spacecraft's powerful High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera is bringing us unprecedented details of the surface of Mars, and you can have input on [where the camera should focus next](http://www.uahirise.org/hiwish/). *Image: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona* [See the full gallery](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/01/gallery-mars/).
06photoshop-of-horrors
5. Photoshop of Horrors: Wired Readers Show BP How It's Done ------------------------------------------------------------ July 28 We asked our readers to use their Photoshop skills and imagination to show BP the opportunity it missed when one of its photographers decided to doctor some press photos. If you're going to be unethical, why not do it well? And why not involve Godzilla and Kanye West? You sent us over 100 hilarious, well-executed takes on the three photos originally altered by BP. It was tough to narrow down the field, but we posted 20 of the best in this gallery. [See the full gallery](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/07/bp-reader-photoshop/). *Image: cybersox13/Wired.com*
07earth-as-art
4. Earth as Art: Stunning New Images From Space ----------------------------------------------- November 16 Earth is truly beautiful when [viewed from space](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/wiredscience/tag/earth-from-space/). But add some false color produced by satellite sensors, and it becomes hard to limit a gallery to 20 images (in fact ours has 22). These pictures, taken by the U.S. Geological Survey's Landsat 5 and Landsat 7 satellites, are so amazing that we ran them across the full width of the site. If you ever need new wallpaper for your desktop, these images are hard to beat. [See the full gallery](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/11/earth-as-art-gallery/). *Image: USGS*
08zooborns-book
3. Cutest Book Ever: ZooBorns Internet Craze Moves to Print ----------------------------------------------------------- November 2 We were not at all surprised to see this gallery near the top of the list. Few things are more appealing and addictive than pictures of baby animals. This collection of images from the new book by the authors of the ZooBorns blog is pretty much ridiculous, as evidenced by the Edmonton Zoo's baby red pandas pictured above. One of the greatest thing about ZooBorns, in addition to the extreme cuteness, is that it introduces us to animals we've never seen as babies, never seen before at all, or never even heard of — like a [gerenuk](http://www.zooborns.com/zooborns/gerenuk/), an [aye-aye](http://www.zooborns.com/zooborns/aye-aye/) or a [fossa](http://www.zooborns.com/zooborns/fossa/). [See the full gallery](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/11/zooborns-gallery/). *Image: Jesse Popowicz/City of Edmonton*
09oldest-trees
2. The Oldest Trees on the Planet --------------------------------- March 17 This collection of the oldest known trees on the planet was more popular than we ever could have predicted. All of them are at least a couple thousand years old. But some are far older, such as the Pando colony of aspens in Utah shown above, which may be as old as a million years. While technically not a single tree, clonal colonies like this one defy time by sending out clones, or genetically identical shoots, so that one trunk's demise doesn't spell the end for the organism. The giant colonies can have thousands of individual trunks, but share the same network of roots. [See the full gallery](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/03/old-tree-gallery/). *Image: “Clonal Quaking Aspens #0906-4318 (80,000 years old, Fish Lake, UT)” / [Rachel Sussman](http://rachelsussman.com/)*
10satellite-photos-of-haiti
1. Satellite Photos of Haiti Before and After the Earthquake ------------------------------------------------------------ January 14 By far our most popular gallery this year, in fact our most popular story of any sort, was a collection of satellite images of Haiti taken before and after the earthquake that struck near Port-au-Prince on January 12. These photos were released the following day by Google and the satellite-imaging company GeoEye. Seeing the devastation from above gave us a new view of the severity of this disaster, a new appreciation for what the country was dealing with, and the daunting task that lay ahead for rescuers and relief workers. [See the full gallery](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/01/satellite-photos-of-haiti-before-and-after-the-earthquake/). *Image: Google/Geoeye*
