geometry matters

Attraction and Repulsion. Modern views of electricity. 1892.

Attraction and Repulsion. Modern views of electricity. 1892.

Saturn's north pole !

The hexagon is nearly 30,000 km (20,000 miles) wide. This is large enough that two Earths could fit inside the storm with room to spare.

It is a standing atmospheric wave created by a powerful jet stream that wraps around the pole. Winds along its edges can exceed 300 km/h (about 220 mph).

At the very center of the hexagon lies a deep, dark polar vortex that extends hundreds of kilometers down into Saturn's atmosphere.

Spectroscopy Technique Reveals Nanoscale Acoustic Waves

Imaging using extreme ultraviolet scattering shows that optical pulses can generate surface excitations with spectra that were previously difficult to achieve. [...] Surface acoustic waves (SAWs) propagate along a solid material’s surface like ripples on a pond. SAWs with wavelengths of hundreds of kilometers are generated by earthquakes, whereas SAWs with wavelengths at the micrometer scale can be excited by lasers. Flavio Capotondi at the Free Electron laser Radiation for Multidisciplinary Investigations (FERMI) facility at Elettra Sincrotrone Trieste in Italy and his colleagues have now demonstrated a simple laser-based technique for exciting and detecting SAWs with nanometer wavelengths [1]. They say that the work will allow the dynamics of materials’ crystal lattices to be probed over a wavelength range that has been inaccessible using other approaches.

A standard optical illusion triggers specific neurons in the visual system of mice.

The neurons that let us see what isn’t there

Spiral Beehive

The Geometry of Movies can Change the Way We Think

Circles. Triangles. Squares. Those aren’t the things you expect to see in a movie but films have been using shapes to subtly influence emotion for a long time. Circles are lovable, triangles are evil, and squares are boring. Now You See It highlights the geometry used in shots to show you how movies use shapes to manipulate your feelings.

A villain is usually portrayed with sharper features to represent their harshness—think Maleficent or Darth Vader. The good guys are softer and rounder to make them appear more lovable and huggable—think Mickey Mouse or Baloo from The Jungle Book. And squares are used for boring and old-fashioned characters like Carl Fredricksen from Up, because squares are squares (duh).