A Beach Covered in Ice Eggs

On this week’s news update...

Rare Puppy

A rare puppy falls from the sky...

3-D-Printed House

A 3-D-printed mud house...

Ice Eggs

And a beach covered in unusual ice eggs!

First up...

What would you do if a puppy fell from the sky?

Wandiligong, Australia

A family in Wandiligong, Australia found this puppy in their yard, with strange marks on his back that suggest he might have been dropped by an eagle.

They named him Wandi.

To find out what kind of dog he is, they asked a laboratory to examine his DNA.

DNA

DNA carries information about how living things look and function—kind of like a computer code.

It turns out Wandi’s DNA code makes him a dingo—a type of Australian wild dog.

dingo

What’s more, Wandi is an alpine dingo—an endangered species.

Wandi is now being cared for at a sanctuary.

When he grows up, the sanctuary hopes he can join a breeding program to help protect alpine dingoes from extinction.

Next up...

3-D printing can be used to make all sorts of objects but what about 3-D printing a house?

Well, a company called WASP is doing just that.

WASP developed the technique by building smaller test structures—like this one.

Natural building materials, such as soil and clay, are mixed with water and other ingredients, then printed in layers.

Because the materials can be found at the construction site, they don’t need to be transported from far away, which reduces pollution.

And if the house ever needs to be demolished, the materials can be reused!

This is what the house will look like when it’s finished.

Next, the team plans to build an entire 3-D-printed village!

And finally...

These might look like shimmering dragon eggs but they’re actually ice eggs!

The balls of ice were spotted on Hailuoto Island, in Finland.

Hailuoto Island, Finland

They form when small chunks break off from a larger sheet of ice.

As those chunks roll around in the water, more layers of ice form around them.

Then, wind and waves erode their edges, gradually making them smoother, until they wash onto the beach.

Ice eggs are rare, because they only form when it’s not too warm and not too cold, not too windy and not too calm.

In this case, the right conditions came together to cause this amazing natural phenomenon!

That’s all for this week. We’ll see you next time.