Many sad men have dealt with baldness, but now it's Mother Nature's turn. Near the town of Newman, Australia, bizarre patches of geological baldness that people have cutely nicknamed "fairy circles" are appearing across the Outback. What's strange is that fairy circles had only ever been spotted in Namibia before this point. What's the connection? Stephan Getzin from the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research believes that competition for water is behind the fairy circles in both Africa and Australia, since Namibia and this particular region of Oz share a similar climate.

Basically, plants are competing for resources. The circles serve as nutrient-rich reservoirs for surrounding vegetation.

This sort of spacing could potentially explain why farmers come across crop circles, but it's much easier to blame aliens.