Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and California Institute of Technology have studied the advantages of various placements of two eyes on an animal’s body, which can go beyond mere depth perception:

Most animals—fish, insects, reptiles, birds, rabbits, and horses, for example—live in non-cluttered environments like fields or plains and have eyes located on either side of their head. These sideways-facing eyes give an animal panoramic vision—the ability to see in front and behind itself.

Humans, primates, and other large mammals like tigers, however, have eyes pointing in the same direction. These animals evolved in cluttered environments, such as forests or jungles. Because of their forward-facing eyes, these animals lose the ability to see behind themselves, but they gain a type of X-ray vision that maximizes their ability to see in leafy environments.

Those two eyes focus on slightly different points, allowing us to visualize the area behind some objects:

Demonstrating this X-ray ability is fairly simple: hold a pen vertically and look at something far beyond it. If you first close one eye, and then the other, you'll see that in each case the pen blocks your view. If you open both eyes, however, you can see through the pen to the world behind it.

Unfortunately, although this ability benefited our tree-dwelling ancestors, cognitive science professor Mark Changizi notes that it is less useful to us in our modern life:

"In today's world, humans have more in common visually with tiny mice in a forest than with a large animal in the jungle. We aren't faced with a great deal of small clutter, and the things that do clutter our visual field, like cars and skyscrapers, are much wider than the separation between our eyes, so we can't use our X-ray power to see through them. If we froze ourselves today and woke up a million years from now, it might be difficult for us to look the new human population in the eye, because by then their eyes might be facing sideways."

Scientists Find Our Eyes Evolved for 'X-Ray' Vision [via Science Blog]

It's no secret that Superman was so overpowered in the comic books that he used to move planets around, was extremely super-smart, traveled through time (without flying around the Earth backwards) on a regular basis, and had powers ranging from super-smell to super-mimicry. He outmatched nearly everyone in the universe, except God, so they had to retcon his ass a few times.

Chief among Superman's powers was his vision, which started out of just the ability to see things fairly sharply, but over the years he must have had laser-eye surgery, because things got a whole lot better for him:

• Probably the most-wanted usage of Supey's eyes was his 'x-ray' vision. What teenage boy (and possibly some girls) wouldn't have wanted to see through clothes? You could even order x-ray spex (that sadly did not work) from the back of comic books. He couldn't see through lead, and according to Kingdom Come he couldn't give you cancer either. No 'melanoma vision' for our hero.
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• His 'heat vision' (which was originally a by-product of the x-ray vision) is portrayed as either lasers shooting from his eyes, fiery optic blasts, or the literal balls of fire which they seem fond of on Smallville. The comics later explain that he's able to shoot his stored-up solar energy out through his eyes.
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• His 'telescopic vision' grew over the comics to eventually let him see not just distant planets, but what was happening on those planets. We wonder if he could flip that vision around so things just appeared very, very tiny.
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• Superman used his 'microscopic vision' on many occasions in the 1970s, analyzing fingerprints, checking out atomic structures, electrons, and protons. In fact, he could have made a fortune alone just by checking houses for fleas.
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• Superman could also see into the electromagnetic spectrum, which allowed him to do dorky things like follow broadcast signals back to their origins. You know, for when crooks go on TV to brag about their plans.
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• Supey also sported 'radar vision,' which was apparently just low-powered infravision, allowing him to see in the dark.
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• He could also combine these vision powers, like using x-ray vision and telescopic vision at the same time, so he could see those distant planets without an asteroid blocking his view.
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• Ultra Boy from The Legion of Super-Heroes had abilities similar to Superman's, although his 'penetra-vision' could see through everything, including lead, and his 'flash-vision' burns twice as hot as Superman's heat vision. Oh, and it's blue.
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• Speaking of blue vision, Superman developed a new 'electrical vision' power in Grant Morrison's All-Star Superman as an homage to the electric blue Superman from the 90s. Why you'd want to send a shout-out to that particular version of Superman, we'll never know.
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• When Superman "died" and his "Superboy" clone appeared, he didn't have any vision powers. However, he later was given a pair of goggles that simulated most of Superman's vision abilities. Why doesn't Superman just give a pair of those to every cop on the planet?

Knowing the crystalline structure of this chunk of microporous aluminium carboxylate — a crazy-ass hybrid compound of organic and inorganic molecules — is great for future research into things like using special powders to absorb toxic spills, or building flexible glass. But, points out scientist Thierry Loiseau, it will also help tidy up lab cupboards:

Researchers can now bring forward samples left in their cupboards because the sizes had previously prevented their study. Now they will be able to elucidate the structures of these samples, with potentially great scientific advances on the horizon.

Oh, oui, oui! Lavez les laboratoires, mes choux choux scientifiques!Image by T. Loiseau, CNRS 2007.

Unveiling the structure of microcrystals [via Eurekalert]