Awesome Flash animation from the University of Utah, showing relative sizes from a coffee bean to a carbon atom.
I wish it could also zoom out and show astronomical sizes, too, like this FSU slide show (not as smooth as the Utah one) or the famous Powers of Ten movie.
Similar:
Destroying trust in the media, science, and government has left America vulnerable to disa...
From The Brookings Institution (non-prof...
Culture
Some problems bringing #Blender3D models into the #Unity3D game engine. The pink represent...
Aesthetics
Canon Australia video: 1 man; 6 backstories; 6 photographers; 6 photos
Canon Australia wants to sell cameras. T...
Aesthetics
What Khan Academy's Fun, Free Learning Empire Has to Do with Dystopian Social Control
Over the Christmas break, I've been ch...
Academia
The Hidden Subversive Messages of [MGM's Screen Adaptation of] The Wizard of Oz
When I tried teaching The Wizard of Oz i...
Books
Trump Briefly Glanced at Eclipse without Protective Glasses
Donald Trump's persona as a man who does...
Current_Events
Delightful animation.
Note that breaking the scale into chunks[1] can be helpful when trying to teach/learn and remember sizes.
“I wish it could also zoom out and show astronomical sizes“. And have reference grids. And permit panning. And have multiple, thematic descent paths. And micrographs. And richer, animate objects. And be javascript and canvas, rather than flash, to permit richer interaction. And be embeddable in web pages. :)
So much of science education and literacy not working isn’t that we don’t know how to do them better, but that we’re not organized to care.
[1] Eg, “How Big Are Things?” http://www.vendian.org/howbig/