Howard Roark

simplypi: Edgar Martins.

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 09:18:43 +0100

simplypi:

Edgar Martins.

floresenelatico: anna hepler

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 17:02:02 +0100

floresenelatico:

anna hepler

Enter The Void

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 21:38:21 +0100

Enter The Void

The Muqarnas Dome of the Hall of the Two Sisters in the Alhambra...

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 20:22:11 +0100

The Muqarnas Dome of the Hall of the Two Sisters in the Alhambra in Granada

(via By abandoning fantasy for the more pragmatic aspects of...

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 11:04:15 +0100

(via By abandoning fantasy for the more pragmatic aspects of building, the… - but does it float)

Photo

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 16:26:17 +0100

analogia: Serlio, Dwelling for a King

Sat, 21 Jan 2012 22:38:20 +0100

analogia:

Serlio, Dwelling for a King

"Consciousness is a wonderful thing, but it initially presents the world to us as if reality were..."

Sun, 15 Jan 2012 17:10:24 +0100

“Consciousness is a wonderful thing, but it initially presents the world to us as if reality were physically located in our heads. It takes training to see that consciousness is a story, and the natural world works independently from it.”

- from “My most disturbing finding” on Reading Nature’s Signals (via tinkerkid)

Photo

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 15:05:51 +0100

Nebelkammer 2 cloud chamber (by rigdrol)

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 13:55:06 +0100

Nebelkammer 2 cloud chamber (by rigdrol)

intothecontinuum: Here is something to think about that was...

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 13:52:16 +0100

intothecontinuum:

Here is something to think about that was only casually mentioned in passing in the recent video that was posted.

The sunlight you may or may not have experienced today finally managed to reach you after a ~100,000 year long journey since it was originally created at the Sun’s core!

Since the speed of light is finite, about 300,000,000 meters/second (or about 671,000,000 miles/hour), it takes time for it to travel from one point in space to another.

Given that the distance from Earth to the Sun is about 150,000,000,000 meters (about 93,000,000 miles) it takes about 8 minutes for light to reach us!

But this is just the time it takes light to reach us from the surface of the sun.

The light coming from the surface of the Sun is itself created as a by-product of nuclear fusion occurring deep in the Sun’s core.

Once light is created at at the Sun’s core it begins its journey to the surface of the Sun some 700,000,000 meters (430,000 miles) away from the core.

One might assume that this light takes the shortest path and heads straight to the surface, which would only take a couple seconds of travel time.

However, this is not the case because there is all kinds of star stuff that gets in the way.

An actual photon may only travel a mere fraction of a centimeter (anywhere between .01 and .3 centimeters depending on how close it is to the surface) before it makes a collision with other matter thereby diverting its path to some other random direction.

Photons continue moving in these seemingly random trajectories, bumping into other particles along the way, and don’t actually reach the surface until about 100,000 years later (give or take an order of magnitude)!

This kind of behavior characterizing the photons motion is modeled by something called a random walk, and is illustrated in a few different instances in the animations above.

Random walks have widespread applications through out the sciences and mathematics. The idea of random walks are even used in some computer algorithms to allow for more efficient solutions to some problems.

One particular application of personal interest, and a rather abstract generalization of the idea, is the quantum random walk, in which the superposition principle of quantum mechanics is used to put the trajectory into a combination of multiple possible trajectories to assist quantum computers in solving problems. The workings of Grover’s search algorithm can be thought of in this way. This isn’t the only instance that relates quantum mechanics to the workings of the Sun (see here).

Anyway, next time you are out in the relentless light of the Sun you may wonder what was going on some 100,000 years ago when that light first originated in the Sun, or maybe even where you’ll be 100,000 years from now when the light being created in the Sun at this moment finally reaches Earth.

(GIFs created from this Java app)

architecture, straight from Bladerunner mikasavela: Kinda...

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 13:31:05 +0100

architecture, straight from Bladerunner

mikasavela:

Kinda cyber.

purestform: DesignatumMuhammad Hafiz

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 12:23:21 +0100

purestform:

Designatum
Muhammad Hafiz

un: victimeyes: biostructure stint?

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 12:17:20 +0100

un:

victimeyes: biostructure

stint?

planetaryfolklore: approachingsignificance: Neurons are...

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 13:06:25 +0100

planetaryfolklore:

approachingsignificance: Neurons are gorgeous. ITfill_blue (by neurollero)

scientificillustration: tiffanyhoran: freakyfauna: Stereo...

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 12:34:42 +0100

scientificillustration:

tiffanyhoran:

freakyfauna:

Stereo Vision according to Rene Descartes.

(via singernotsong)

andscape shaped by the relationship between where water falls...

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 18:01:04 +0100

andscape shaped by the relationship between where water falls and where it’s consumed within the United States. It builds images to expose the reality that water is channeled, pumped, and siphoned to locations far from where it falls. Although the paths are imagined, Drawing Water is based on real data and it reveals a clear truth about water resources and use. Drawing Water plays a bit upon the 19th-centu (via Drawing Water :: David Wicks :: Works)

Cloud chamber photographs originally invented by Charles Thomas...

Sat, 07 Jan 2012 18:27:18 +0100

Cloud chamber photographs originally invented by Charles Thomas Wilson for studying cloud formation and optical phenomena in the moist air. Inspired by sightings of the Broken Spectre while working on the summit of Ben Nevis, Scottish Highlands, in 1894, The New Landscape in Art and Science, 1956, Gyorgy Kepes

(via Antony Gormley)

Sat, 07 Jan 2012 00:27:29 +0100

(via Antony Gormley)

Sat, 07 Jan 2012 00:24:56 +0100

(via Antony Gormley)