Particles

No, not another post on physics. At least not directly. In my advanced animation class we are getting to the fun stuff. Yesterday that was particle systems. So in preparation I got to play a bit with the implementation in Lightwave and created these examples:

Did not upload the animation through google video this time. That now requires one to install Gears. I do not really like to install stuff that has a unique identifier (a number) that can be tracked, especially if there is no functional reason for it. Putting that off, at least for now. If anybody knows of security and/or privacy issues related to Google Gears, please comment!

Tiny Things

Reading the Physics Today the other day in our tiny room, or should I say browsing it in the bathroom, I came across an amazing image of a nanotechnology circuit board (or at least some switches made with carbon tubes) against the backdrop of a human hair at the same scale. This is definitely the stuff that used to be science fiction when I was a kid!

Which seems to be a sentiment shared by Dan Pirarro

Maybe the iPod invisible, as once previewed on SNL, is not too far off (aaarrgh, cannot find video!)

Unfortunately the on-line version of Physics Today has the image behind a password. The image posted comes from the BBC, and they only had this tiny version... and that post is three years old, so image how small the circuits must be now!