The Scale of the Universe
A few years ago, I discovered one of the coolest corporate promotional tools ever to strike the web — Nikon’s “Universcale,” an exquisitely rendered interactive Flash animation conveying epic orders of cosmic magnitude, from subatomic particles on the left to the entire known universe on the right. But this illustrated implementation of the same basic concept, created by a user of the site Newgrounds named Fotoshop, is definitely my new favorite:
(You can scroll with the mouse cursor or more slowly using the keyboard arrow keys, and the animation can be made larger using the controls in the top right corner.) Which do you think is better? Nikon’s Universcale or Fotoshop’s Scale of the Universe?
Filed Under: Cosmology • EnlightenNext Editors’ Blog • Science • Technology
I don’t think there are words for that, Tom. It brings to mind the metaphors from Abrams and Primack of the realms of gods (the super-small) and giants (the super-large) with humans squarely between the two. Thanks for sharing this mind-blowing graphic.
With all the calamities besetting humanity these days, I wonder if we will be ready to receive the news of the expected San Adreas doing wrreaking havoc on California and all the cities along that fault? The Golden Gate bridge, LA, SF, etc? I hate to think of it and all the folks involved living along the fault seem not to be concerned enough, evidently. Saints preserve them!
With the proliferating population of the world, people are habiting more and more of the areas known to be hazardous. It’s true the catastrophes are somewhat spaced but we know sea coasts, low lying areas along rivers and of course near fault lines are catastrophes waiting to happen. The longer earthquakes are spaced, the more severe they will probably be.
Not something pleasant to contemplate.
That made my head spin. Thanks for the ride!