08 4 / 2013
04 3 / 2013
Physicist proposes to his physicist girlfriend in an academic paper, analyzing the future projection of their happiness together. Nerdiest and cutest proposal ever?
01 3 / 2013
These beautiful original pieces inspire me to see the beauty inherent in so much of the science we do on an everyday basis.
You Wish Your Neurons Were This Pretty
When Greg Dunn finished his Ph.D. in neuroscience at Penn in 2011, he bought himself a sensory deprivation tank as a graduation present. The gift marked a major life transition, from the world of science to a life of meditation and art.
Now a full-time artist living in Philadelphia, Dunn says he was inspired in his grad-student days by the spare beauty of neurons treated with certain stains. The Golgi stain, for example, will turn one or two neurons black against a golden background. ”It has this Zen quality to it that really appealed to me,” Dunn said.
(via proofmathisbeautiful)
23 2 / 2013
Popperfont found this vintage article by William R. MacLean. Published in January 1959, “On the acoustics of cocktail parties” derives the maximum number of well-mannered guests compatible with a quiet party. Happy Saturday night!
18 2 / 2013
Listen to the latest podcast in the Terry Project, an interdisciplinary program out of UBC aimed at educating undergraduates about important global issues. By creating a forum that includes students from many disciplines, the project’s creators hope to foster a discussion informed by many different viewpoints and areas of expertise.
13 2 / 2013
Dark thoughts keep evolution awake some nights. It tosses and turns for hours, tormented by visions of creatures too twisted for anyone else to see—creatures, like the stargazer fish, that it knows no decent natural force would ever even imagine. In a desperate attempt to feel normal evolution tries to bury these demons within the murky sand of its subconscious. Deep down, though, it knows that this is a futile effort—that sooner or later, the beasts will creep back out.
28 1 / 2013
Coral sand magnified 100x photo by David Maitland. Coral sand is composed of the microscopic shells of single-celled organisms, as well as small bits of coral. (read more)
06 1 / 2013
These moonlit Nacreous clouds were captured by DL. S (aka Peace Portal Photo) at McMurdo Station in Ross Island, Antarctica.
whoa
(via proofmathisbeautiful)
11 12 / 2012
Click through 20 of the best figures from scientific papers from the past year.
From Wired’s Best Scientific Figures of 2012.
Figures contained in scientific reports are a neglected area of the design world. Typically intended for display to academic audiences in the cramped confines of a journal, they tend to be utilitarian and esoteric—yet while looking through hundreds of articles in the course of 2012, certain figures transcended the technical and rose to the level of communication art. They combined visual clarity, information density and insight into some fact of fundamental interest.
Featuring such gems as “Gardening with Fire” and “All the Birds in the World.”
