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jtotheizzoe: Van Gogh - Altered Visionary Dichromatic...

Sun, 19 Aug 2012 08:59:40 -0400

Van Gogh - Altered Visionary

Dichromatic paintings?

I recently stumbled across a rather stunning idea. After visiting a design exhibit that modeled the visual experience of people with colorblindness, Kazunori Asada noticed that the paintings of Vincent Van Gogh on display had entered a new light, so to speak. Under the chromatically filtered light, Van Gogh’s more striking and curious color choices suddenly became natural and warm. It was if this was how they were meant to be viewed, Asada thought.

Did Vincent Van Gogh have a color vision deficiency?

Those of us with normal vision are able to differentiate the full range of visible wavelengths thanks to three different types of cone cell photoreceptors that, together, cover the range of the spectrum we are accustomed to seeing. Although they are most sensitive to blue, green and yellow-green light, they are termed “blue”, “green” and “red” receptors. This is known as “trichromacy”.

We probably all know someone who is colorblind, right? My dad is. There are three main classes of common “color-blindness”. These are termed “dichromacy”, since they are due to the lack of one photoreceptor. Protanopia is the lack of red receptors (their ROYGBIV rainbow looks like the one above), deuteranopia is the lack of green receptors, and tritanopia (the rarest) is the lack of blue receptors. What’s important is that these aren’t all-or-nothing situations. Someone’s vision can land on a very wide range of those deficiencies.

Asada developed a color vision simulation program that can convert any image to a close approximation of what colorblind people would see. You can play with it here, which I STRONGLY suggest you do. He also developed a free iOS and Android app that can take your photos through the eyes of the colorblind. I’ve played with it, and it’s awesome.

When you look at Van Gogh’s “Starry Night” above, the left side is the unchanged painting and the right side is moderate red receptor loss. Some of the more reddish and orange hues in the “normal” lefthand version become even yellows on the right, as we may expect for stars and moonlight. I think the contrast between the shadows and sky becomes more striking in the filtered version, too.

It’s definitely a matter of opinion, to some degree. Who knows what Van Gogh saw or intended us to see? But some paintings, like his sunflowers series, are even more striking in their differences. SImply put, they look more like actual sunflowers. Go and read Asada’s full analysis, complete with a bunch of side-by-side comparisons, and see for yourself.

Here’s the colorblindness simulator for you to play with your own images at home. Either way it’s the most interesting look at art through the lens of vision science since Monet’s ultraviolet eye.

explore-blog: The biggest 3D map of the universe, ever – the...

Sat, 11 Aug 2012 18:43:05 -0400

explore-blog:

The biggest 3D map of the universe, ever – the Sloan Digital Sky Survey captures 200 million galaxies. The spectra and motion collected in this ongoing project are like a lens into the early days of our universe.

(ᔥ It’s Okay To Be Smart)

jtotheizzoe: explore-blog: Albert Einstein, one of artist Noma...

Wed, 23 May 2012 14:27:11 -0400

jtotheizzoe:

explore-blog:

Albert Einstein, one of artist Noma Bar’s brilliant minimalist portraits of cultural icons

Relativity amazing.

Hsu Holds Facebook Townhall with Canadian Researchers

Mon, 21 May 2012 09:53:56 -0400

Hsu Holds Facebook Townhall with Canadian Researchers

jtotheizzoe: Ten Thousand I think there’s some personal...

Thu, 10 May 2012 16:38:43 -0400

jtotheizzoe:

Ten Thousand

I think there’s some personal blogging philosophy in this somewhere.

(via xkcd)

explore-blog: Stephen Fry’s fantastic essay on language,...

Sat, 28 Apr 2012 21:35:09 -0400

explore-blog:

Stephen Fry’s fantastic essay on language, animated in kinetic typography.

Also see these 5 essential books on language.

edwardspoonhands: AHAHAH!!! SO GOOOOOD!

Fri, 20 Apr 2012 20:46:42 -0400

edwardspoonhands:

AHAHAH!!! SO GOOOOOD!

RealLOL: Your source of daily updated funny pictures and gifs.

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 20:41:25 -0400

RealLOL: Your source of daily updated funny pictures and gifs.

quantumaniac: Famous Physicists as Children From left to...

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 09:41:48 -0400

quantumaniac:

Famous Physicists as Children

From left to right:

Stephen Hawking (b. 1942) - Most well known for Hawking radiation and theorems involving gravitational singularities. He suffers from ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease - and is one of the most well known scientists of our time.

Neil deGrasse Tyson (b. 1958) - Currently the director of the Hayden Planetarium at the Rose Center for Earth and Space, Tyson is one of the leading science advocates in the world - and was one of the men who supported the demotion of Pluto.

Carl Sagan (1934-1996) - One of the most successful science popularizers of all time, Sagan was also the bestselling author of Cosmos, one of the most popular science books of all time. He was the first to propose that Jupiter’s moons Titan and Europa may hold liquid components of water on them.

Albert Einstein (1879-1955) - The most well known genius in history, Albert Einstein was a boss. During his career, he revolutionized almost every area of Physics, including quantum mechanics and he effectively founded the study of Cosmology. His theory of general relativity has been wildly successful, despite ‘attacks’ by neutrinos.

Richard Feynman (1918-1988) - His most important contributions came via his path integral formulation of quantum mechanics and development of Quantum Electrodynamics (QED). Plus, he was a total badass.

kernthegnome: This week a small gnome called Kern will be...

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 20:54:46 -0400

kernthegnome:

This week a small gnome called Kern will be extremely honoured to visit CERN in Switzerland.

Why am I so excited about visiting CERN?

CERN is the world’s largest particle physics lab and is the home of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). On 30th March 2010 the LHC successfully smashed two proton beams travelling with 3.5 trillion electron volts of energy, resulting in a 7 trillion electron volt event. This event started us on the path to the expected discovery of the Higgs boson.

Why does the Higgs boson interest me?

The Higgs boson is a hypothetical, massive subatomic particle with zero electric charge. It is postulated to interact with other particles in such a way as to impart mass to them.

In easier terms, all objects are hypothesised to have mass as a result of a field called the Higgs Field. Fields are made up of a class of particles known as bosons, so the Higgs Field is composed of groups of particles called Higgs bosons. A particle accelerator such as CERN can smash particles together at near light speed to try to create the correct conditions to isolate Higgs bosons so that they can be detected. If they are detected and their properties match those predicted by Peter Higg’s hypothesis, then we will have an explanation for why matter has mass.

For a gnome studying weight, precision measurements and gravitational fields, all of this is fascinating. I am looking forward to talking to some of the scientists at CERN about their important research.

CERN was also the birthplace of the World Wide Web through an internal project called ENQUIRE in 1989. Thank you for your fine work Tim Berners-Lee and Robert Cailliau.

Now please excuse me if I don’t blink for the next few days. I won’t want to miss a moment of this visit!

explore-blog: Abstract City – the collected visual essays...

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 09:46:19 -0400

explore-blog:

Abstract City – the collected visual essays of Christoph Niemann, blending quirky humor with truth about the human condition.

explore-blog: A peek inside Alexander Graham Bell’s...

Sat, 31 Mar 2012 12:52:07 -0400

explore-blog:

A peek inside Alexander Graham Bell’s sketchbooks, joining the recently revealed sketchbooks of other great creators, including Samuel Beckett’s doodle-filled notebooks.

jtotheizzoe: “It’s a completely alien world.” The first video...

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 19:21:22 -0400

jtotheizzoe:

“It’s a completely alien world.”

The first video from James Cameron’s 6.8 mile dive to Challenger Deep!

Jim Cameron (we can call him “Jim” right?) sounds like he was able to shake off the “hit bottom” and Titanic jokes pretty well as he described his record-breaking descent to the deepest point on Earth completed Sunday. National Geographic sponsored Cameron’s dive team.

Although he had a hydraulic malfunction that cut the trip short and prevented him from collecting the samples he had hoped to bring back, he was able to describe that undersea world that exists under the crushing weight of 16,000 pounds per square inch:

“It was very lunar, a very desolate place… . I felt like, literally in the space of one day, I’ve gone to another planet and come back.”

The only life he was able to see with the naked eye were tiny shrimp-like crustaceans, who were probably very confused as to who turned all the lights on. He’s got plans to get back down there as soon as possible and collect some more samples.

Bonus: Best YouTube comment on this video? “First thing he saw at the bottom was Chuck Norris”

(↬ SlashGear)

kernthegnome: Weighing in at 307.73g at SNOLAB, Sudbury,...

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 19:16:20 -0400

kernthegnome:

Weighing in at 307.73g at SNOLAB, Sudbury, Canada.

Latitude: 46.4374355

Longitude: -81.1465397

This is lighter than I had estimated for this latitude based on my previous results. I really need to travel further North again at some point to take more readings. Check my map and let me know where you think I should visit.

Hey dieters! Here is a great tip for quick weight loss. Travel 2km straight down. I took another reading 2km underground in the world’s deepest laboratory at SNOLAB. I weighed in at 307.63g, 0.1g lighter than at the surface.

I could market this as the Gnome Diet. The only downside is the one and a half hour lift journey to get down there!

explore-blog: TED curator Chris Anderson shares some...

Sat, 24 Mar 2012 08:54:14 -0400

explore-blog:

TED curator Chris Anderson shares some fascinating questions with still-unknown answers, animated by Andrew Park of RSA Animate fame.

skeptv: Long Way Down: Mariana Trench Seven miles is a long way...

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 19:10:42 -0400

skeptv:

Long Way Down: Mariana Trench

Seven miles is a long way down… more than a mile deeper than Mt. Everest is up. To reach the deepest part of the Mariana Trench, James Cameron will descend past some pretty amazing milestones. Here’s a glimpse.

Sounding the Deepest Spot on Earth

Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench near Guam is the deepest spot on Earth. How do we know? We didn’t look for it. We listened.

Knight News Challenge: Science Concierge: Connecting People with Knowledge

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 13:39:47 -0400

Knight News Challenge: Science Concierge: Connecting People with Knowledge:

newschallenge:

1. What do you propose to do?

Develop Science Concierge microgrant program within our existing science hub to motivate more and better interaction with science.

2. Is anyone else doing something like this now, and how is your project different?

Our interconnected annual conference,…

"So, what is it to be human? Unlike Homo sapiens, we’re grown in a radically different petri dish...."

Sat, 17 Mar 2012 19:41:00 -0400

“

So, what is it to be human? Unlike Homo sapiens, we’re grown in a radically different petri dish. Our habitat is filled with cultural artifacts—the two heavyweights being language and music—designed to harness our brains’ ancient capabilities and transform them into new ones.

Humans are more than Homo sapiens. Humans are Homo sapiens who have been nature-harnessed into an altogether novel creature, one designed in part via natural selection, but also in part via cultural evolution.

”

- Mark Changizi, author of Harnessed: How Language and Music Mimicked Nature and Transformed Ape to Man, on whether we are “meant” to have language and music – a fascinating complement to the ongoing question of what it means to be human. (via explore-blog)

explore-blog: Truth from C. S. Lewis by way of London-based...

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 18:21:56 -0400

explore-blog:

Truth from C. S. Lewis by way of London-based designer What Katie Does.

jtotheizzoe: crookedindifference: The Most Astounding Fact by...

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 19:28:18 -0500

jtotheizzoe:

crookedindifference:

The Most Astounding Fact by Neil DeGrasse Tyson

Astrophysicist Dr. Neil DeGrasse Tyson was asked by a reader of TIME magazine, “What is the most astounding fact you can share with us about the Universe?” This is his answer.

When you take something great, like the musings of the mind of Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson, and combine it with something else great, like stunning images of life and wonder on and off of Earth … you get this.

It’s the sort of video that makes you prop your chin up in your hand, with your head tilted just so (yeah, like that), as you stare at your computer screen mumbling things like “Ahhh“ and “Wooahh” and other unintelligible noises that mean “I approve of this, and it makes me feel good.”

Watch it once, then twice, then with a friend.