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Showing posts with label Incredible. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Incredible. Show all posts
Friday, December 11, 2009
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Cool Hermes Window Display Illusion
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The window is designed with an image of woman projected on to a monitor. The scarf softly sways in the air in response to the woman’s blow
Tags: Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Saturday, December 5, 2009
10 Awesome Masterpices Of Frost
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When thinking of snowflakes and frost, your memory tends to give you subtle hints: it’s translucent, abstract, beautiful and short-lived. Nothing however, can prepare you for what abstract masterpieces icy nights may bring. Flourishes of Jack Frost’s brushstrokes envelop windscreens in fractal crystal and transform into icy autumn leaves, crystal ferns and mathematical shapes. Jack Frost is an abstract artist.
Perhaps the beauty of frost lies precisely in the fact that it is ephemeral, melting into oblivion only several hours after it is created. Frost deposits form when water vapor turns directly into ice, which happens when the air temperature is at or below freezing. When the first frost crystals form a layer, new crystals will align themselves with those already there, which gives us the amazing natural patterns we see.
This amazing shot could easily be mistaken for a close-up of a crystal vase. The detail and clarity are unbelieveable. It’s actually the windscreen of a car taken from the inside. Windscreens are more prone to frosting over because they cool much quicker than the other windows in the car. Being vertical, the side windows loose heat
at a slower rate the windscreen, which is a larger surface area and points directly into the cool night air, making it a perfect canvas for Jack Frost.
Like little Christmas trees fallen from the sky, this shot looks cool in iced blue. Trees and plants cool off by a process called radiative cooling, which means they give off energy in the form of infrared radiation
. This means they retain more heat so they don’t frost over in the same way windows do.
Wonderful natural looking landscapes are created without any direction. The patterns in this photograph look like petals of a tropical flower, and are just as fragile.
The lighting on this image gives an awesome 3D quality to the frost, but one touch and it would be gone. Still, whether touched or not, the first rays of the morning sun will melt nature’s hard word in minutes. Shame.
Taken in macro, this image shows the intricacy of frost formations, and like many others looks 3D. It also is not unlike some of the great impressionist masterpieces from the 19th century.
“We had a day of hard rain and then a sudden windy hard freeze. Made for some interesting frost patterns on the windows,” says Muffet the photographer. The wind seems to have frozen the rain in upward strokes resulting in this fantastic image. Although, it also looks like the old flock wallpaper from the 70s – not so cool.
It’s uncanny how the long arms of this frost formation are repeated in equally spaced-out chunks, like a shaft of wheat. The shape of frost crystals are influenced by the type of glass they’ve formed on, and any imperfections or scratches in the surface will play a part in the final look.
Like frosted sunflowers these frost formations look as if they’ve erupted from rain drops, their icy petals growing slowly in the cold air.
This mish-mash of crystals looks like a little like a tall ship caught in a storm
. The waves to the bottom right of the image and the masts keeling sideways. Other people will probably see something different, but then that’s the beauty of art – it’s in the eye of the beholder, as they say.
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10 Most Awesome And Incredible Natural Arches On The Earth
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We humans sometimes seem to think we’ve got it all sown up as the premiere architects on this planet, but Nature is actually well ahead when it comes to constructing wonders of design emerging from the landscape. Take the arch, for example. While it was only a few millennia ago that humankind began to build these impressive structures, Mother Earth has been moulding them for millions of years.Get your hiking boots on; we’re taking a trip to find the most amazing of these natural formations the earth has to offer, with points awarded for both size and splendour.
10. Grosvenor Arch, Utah, USA
Found in southern Utah, Grosvenor Arch is a unique sandstone double arch that while not the biggest in this list is still hugely striking in appearance. Teetering atop stony stilts, this splendid natural formation is accessible by road, though unlike some such landforms offers no natural passageway below that visitors can walk through. As a natural arch, Grosvenor is a product of erosion, the elements having found weaknesses in the softer rock of a cliff and gradually worn them away.
9. Kolob Arch, Utah, USA
Located in Utah’s Zion National Park, Kolob Arch is considered the second longest natural arch in the world, its span having been measured at 287 feet – just three shy of the span of the more famous Landscape Arch, of which more later. Set just 44 feet from the cliff side it frames, this imposing landmark is reachable by various hiking trails, though trekking in the summer is discouraged, as it can get hot as hickory throughout the Colorado Plateau region.
8. Shipton’s Arch, China
Shipton’s Arch, aka Tushuk Tash, meaning Hole in Heaven, is the tallest natural arch on earth. Located northwest of Kashgar, in China’s Xinjiang Province, this soaring structure, while familiar to locals, was not known to the West until its discovery in 1947 by English mountaineer Eric Shipton. The span of the arch is around 212 feet, but seen from the floor of the west side canyon, its height is estimated at a jaw-dropping 1,200 feet – about the height of the Empire State Building.7. Sipapu Natural Bridge, Utah, USA
Not technically speaking a natural arch but a colossal natural bridge, Sipapu Bridge nevertheless makes the cut here as it does a good enough impersonation of an arch. This beautiful structure boasts a span of 225 feet, making it the second longest natural bridge after the more renowned Rainbow Bridge. Sipapu is also now the longest natural arch in the world with an active trail beneath it that visitors may pass through, affording spectacular views of its underbelly.6. Steven’s Arch, Utah, USA
A spectacular shelter arch found it Utah’s Escalente Canyon, at its junction with Stevens Canyon, Steven’s Arch is another giant on the world stage of arches, with a span believed to measure 220 feet. Forbidding at first glance, Steven’s Arch gives the illusion that there is no way to make the climb up to it, though in actual fact the hike is neither difficult not hair-raising – just downright breathtaking. Over the Escalente River, Steven’s Arch looms like a cryptic sign from Nature.5. Double Arch, Utah, USA
Another of Utah’s finest, Double Arch is a famous close-set pair of natural arches, and despite the competition is one of the more impressive sights in Arches National Park. This spot hit the big screen when it was used as a backdrop for the opening scene of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, in which the arches are briefly glimpsed. They were formed differently than most of the arches in the Park, the result of water erosion from above rather than the more typical erosion form the side.4. Aloba Arch, Chad
With a height of 394 feet, Aloba Arch in Chad is the second tallest natural arch on earth, and at about 250 feet in length it is also one of the world’s longest. Yet despite its size, this magnificent landform is seldom seen due to its remote location. Aloba Arch appears to have been shaped in two stages, its upper half a buttress-type natural arch formed at the end of a slab of sandstone while its lower section is a softer sandstone layer that was subsequently eroded by a stream.3. Rainbow Bridge, Utah, USA
Another natural bridge that snuck into our list of arches, the resplendent Rainbow Bridge, is a majestic structure that looks arch-like enough for us. A National Monument and a sacred place for Native Americans, it stands 245 feet tall, has a 234-foot span, and is 42 feet thick and 33 feet wide at its apex. This natural wonder was carved out during the last Ice Age: river waters formed a wide hairpin bend flowing around the solid fin of sandstone that would become the bridge.2. Delicate Arch, Utah, USA
The most widely-recognized landmark in Arches National Park, Delicate Arch is depicted on Utah’s license plates and is something of an international icon too. Known to early cowboys as ‘the Schoolmarm’s Bloomers’ due to its distinctive shape, the 52 feet tall freestanding arch was the site of controversy in 2006 when climber Dean Potter made the first recorded free solo ascent of the formation – an event the led to the banning of climbs on any named arch within the park year-round.1. Landscape Arch, Utah, USA
The longest of the numerous natural arches in Utah’s Arches National Park – indeed the longest true arch on earth – Landscape Arch is a phenomenal 290 feet in length. Just as phenomenal is the fact that at its thinnest point this slender arc of rock is only 6 feet thick. Since 1991, three large slabs of sandstone measuring 30, 47 and 70 feet long have fallen from Landscape Arch’s narrowest section, prompting the Park Service to close the trail that led beneath it. It could collapse at any time.Tags:
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Awesome and Beautiful Art of Science
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Mixing the staggering beauty of pure art with a precision and dedication of great science.It reads contradictory and conflicted: the art of science/science of art – the mixture of the logical and methodical with the imaginative and emotional.
But science and art – or, if you’d prefer, art and science – have held hands, if not as close friends, for a very long time. Greek and Roman artists followed often strict guidelines considering the correct mathematical proportions of the figures in their frescoes and sculptures, Japanese woodblocks were as much about mechanical precision as they were about the subject being printed, the Renaissance was all about using science to bring a literal new dimension to painting, and then you have the work of Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka.
Everything you see below is made from glass...
No, you haven’t heard of Leopold or Rudolf Blaschka – but you certainly should have. Unlike the Greeks and the Romans, the Japanese Ukiyo-e artists, Michangelo and Leonardo, Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka aren’t well-known outside of either esoteric or scientific circles.Which is what makes them so remarkable: they mixed the staggering beauty of pure art with a precision and dedication worthy of great scientists.
Recreating Nature in Glass - Looking Through a Glass, Darkly
Leopold and Rudolf were glass artisans – possibly some of the greatest, ever. They weren’t concerned with platters and goblets, lampshades and windows. Nope, Leopold and Rudolf created nature.
Simplified, here’s the story: Harvard Professor George Lincoln Goodale wanted examples to help teach botany, but the problem was plants have a tendency to … well, die. Sure, you could preserve some specimens but lots of species just don’t look the same after being dried – the plant version of stuffed and mounted. Yes, you could try using paintings or even photography but plants are – and here’s a surprise -- three dimensional. So what Professor Goodale did was ask the Blaschkas to create detailed glass plants to help him teach his students about real ones.
What the Blaschkas did, was more than just recreate plants: they created astounding works of not only scientific accuracy but pure, brilliant, art. Even the simplest of their efforts is deceptively unencumbered… a sign of their genius as their reproductions don't resemble the botanical model – they look EXACTLY like them, created by hand, in fickle and fragile glass, and all in the period 1887 to 1936.
What’s even more impressive is how many they created - more than 3,000 models of some 850 species – many of which can be seen on display at Harvard while many others are being painstakingly restored. But the Blaschkas didn’t stop at mere plants. Plants are relatively simple subjects and there are much deeper challenges out there - creatures so rare and fragile that very few men have ever seen them in their delicate flesh (even more frail than the glass the Blaschkas used to recreate them).When the reproductions below were conjured in the late 19th century only a few marine explorers and a few lucky seaman had seen any of them. Octopi, urchins, sea cucumbers, anemones, jellyfish, cuttlefish – they were too rare, too fragile, to be seen outside of their briny homes. That is until the Blaschkas.
I wish there was some way to request a moment of silence. I wish there was some way to ask you to stop reading this and look at the pictures here and at other places of the web. I wish there was some way for you to have a nice glass of wine, put on some nice music – maybe Bach, who also mixed science and art – and just admire the care, the craft, and the pure art the Blaschkas created.Other Astonishing Amalgams of Science and Art
The Blaschka brothers left an inspirational legacy. Josiah McElheny – a recipient of a MacArthur Genius Grant – is a kindred spirit to the Blaschkas, another mind-blowing artist who works in the whimsical and temperamental medium of glass … and the disciplined domain of science.
McElheny’s works -- like that of the Blaschka brothers -- take inspiration from the universe around us, and there is no better example than the key moment seen below. In many ways this is a perfect place to stop: the Blaschka brothers created perfect artistic reproductions of nature to teach science, and McElheny created a sculptural interpretation of the ultimate act of creation, as discovered by science: the Big Bang.
Dale Chihuly also makes incredible glass sculptures, but these are more surreal than scientifically correct:
Physics Fusion With Art?When physics get too complicated (or obscure) the whole exercise may start to resemble abstract art patterns:
Fabric Brain Art: This is Your Brain on WoolNeuroscience and art mix beautifully at "The Museum of Scientifically Accurate Fabric Brain Art" - click here. Some examples are somewhat unnerving, and others are plainly tongue-in-cheek:
Fabric MRI - slices, slices everywhere:
Street art can be educational too: here is a lesson in anatomy and graffiti skill, seen somewhere in Russia:
The Dark Side of the Moon is Buried in the Wall - and Mystery... for Another 70 YearsPerhaps one the most striking examples of astronomy science visualisation is this humongous model of the Moon from 1908, almost a surreal doorway to another world, a snapshot of bizarre art/science history:
awesome, ART, Beautiful, Interesting, Incredible
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