A beautiful visual demonstration of traveling waves, standing waves, beating and random motion (via Simple Harmonic (and non-harmonic) Motion § Harvard Natural Sciences Lecture Demonstrations - thanks to Jerry Coyne at Why Evolution is True for drawing my attention to it)
Here’s a fun animated short about bug collecting. Clever. And great music! (video credit: Jennie Russ and Ryan Buck from Evergreen State College via MYRMECOS)
(Source: llama.evergreen.edu)
(credit: Flottille (2011) by Etienne Cliquet)
Where math meets performance art: Sculptor Etienne Cliquet takes advantage of capillary action in the making of these kinetic origami sculptures. Clever.
I just discovered The Economist’s blog called Daily Chart. Each day, they post a graphic illustrating some germane point (ha! I said germane). Neat concept, I’m eager to see what they highlight.
So, thoughts on this video? I think it makes a good first impression, and it’s certainly an interesting topic, but then the graphic theme gets tiring, particularly the oscillating rainbow lines everywhere. Plus, it’s hard to follow what the graphs are actually showing much of the time because they’re on the screen for such a short period. What this reveals is that they’re really just “fluff” - visual fireworks to keep you listening to the speaker. I’m not sure this is an effective strategy. I found my eyes glazing over as I was lulled by a world of magical rainbow snakes dancing across the screen…
Economic opportunities for women: Imbalance of opportunity | The Economist
