Four links about science

[browngirl]

Of so, so many I've been fortunate to come across recently.

If the moon was only one pixel: a scale diagram of the solar system.

Actual photos of molecules, featuring excited cursing.

Roadway solar panels. Think of all those roads baking in the sun...

The Metropolitan releases thousands of thousands of images to the public. BRB, I have to search everything tagged 'Minoan'.

Comments

[peteralway.livejournal.com]

That "Moon is one pixel" graphic is about the same scale as the model solar system we do in my class.

I wonder how big a bacterium would be at the scale of those molecule pics... Hmm, if the bonds are about an angstrom long, and are depicted as about 5 mm, that's uh I think 50,000,000 times enlarged. If a bacterium is about 0.002 mm long, it would scale to...100,000 mm, or 100m long. about the length of a football field.

That darned science!

[thnidu.livejournal.com]

Cosmic View is an essay by Dutch educator Kees Boeke that combines writing and graphics to explore many levels of size and structure, from the astronomically vast to the atomically tiny. Originally published in 1957, the essay begins with a simple photograph of a Dutch girl sitting outside her school and holding a cat. The essay first backs up from the original photo, with graphics that include more and more of the vast reaches of space in which the girl is located. The essay then narrows in on the original picture, with graphics that show ever smaller areas until the nucleus of a sodium atom is reached. Boeke writes commentary on each graphic, along with introductory and concluding notes.

(See Wikipedia for the rest of the article.)

[annonynous.livejournal.com]

That sounds very much like what "Powers of Ten", a short that used to be shown at old Boskones way back when. It started with an image of, I think, a couple picnicking in a field and then expanded the image by powers of ten out into the cosmos. It then quickly reversed direction and ended up with images at the microscopic level. I thoroughly enjoyed that little short but have not thought of it in years. Thanks for the pleasant memory jog.

Ann O.

[thnidu.livejournal.com]

Yes indeed, "Powers of Ten" acknowledges "Cosmic View" in its credits and on its webpage.

[dandelion-diva.livejournal.com]

Wonderful links. Thank you. :)

Love you.

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

I was inspired by all the wonderfulness you post. :D
*hugs you muchly*

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

You may have told me before, but I was wondering if you could say again how old you were when you fell in love with the Minoans, and what the catalyst was.

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

I was twelve. Amusingly, the Bible got e into archaeology; I wanted to know more about how its people lived, etc. What I found, of course, was so much of human history not mentioned in the Bible, like the wonderful Chalcolithic, but I digress.

I was looking up books on Pompeii and found one on "Thera, the Pompeii of the ancient Aegean", and was hooked. Also, reading about the Minoans gave huge amounts of dimension to my interest in Greek mythology.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

*wonderful*

A whole world opened up for you.

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

That's it exactly!

[annonynous.livejournal.com]

It was a pleasant surprise to get to Neptune in the scale diagram of the solar system and find it continuing out to poor, little Pluto. It even ended with a quick love note to Pluto. Can you tell that I am not a fan of our former ninth planet being demoted? [g]

You, search for everything tagged Minoan? Quelle surprise! {g & d]

Ann O.

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

One day I'm going to write ana essay here about how Pluto was not demoted but reclassified, into an awesome new category, but today is not that day. *grins at you* I'm glad you enjoyed these.

[johnpalmer.livejournal.com]

Thank you; lovely stuff.