Scientific Illustration

scienceisbeauty:

Compared to classical solids, the quantum solid helium-4 can undergo a giant plastic deformation that is also reversible.

Source: Plastic Quantum Crystals, American Physical Society

rhamphotheca:

REVEALING QUANTUM FLOW

I’m not really sure what the fuck this physics article is about, but it seems like it might be really interesting and the graphics are cool…

UK-based physicist Ole Steuernagel from the University of Hertfordshire, alongside Dimitris Kakofengitis and Georg Ritter, have found that a new powerful tool they call ‘Wigner flow’ is the quantum analogue of phase space flow.

Wigner flow provides information for quantum dynamics similar to that gleaned from phase space trajectories in classical physics. Wigner flow can be used for the visualisation of quantum dynamics. Additionally, and perhaps even more importantly, Wigner flow helps with the abstract analysis of quantum dynamics using topological methods.

In classical physics, phase space trajectories give rise to flow-fields representing the dynamics of the system along its trajectories; they yield additional insight into a system’s behaviour…

(Read more: PhysOrg)

# natural history scientists trying to understand quantum physics.

mudwerks:

(via Mondorama 2000: Réactions neutroniques)

rhamphotheca:

The Hertzsprung–Russell diagram is a scatter graph of stars showing the relationship between the stars’ absolute magnitudes or luminosities versus their spectral types or classifications and effective temperatures. Hertzsprung–Russell diagrams are not pictures or maps of the locations of the stars. Rather, they plot each star on a graph measuring the star’s absolute magnitude or brightness against its temperature and color… (read more: Wikipedia)

jtotheizzoe:

staceythinx:

Elegant ideas for an elegant home. These vinyl wall decals are available from the Cut N Paste Etsy shop.

Science-influenced wall decals should have a place in every home.

(via fuckyeahartandscience)

rhamphotheca:

Diffuse gas—called plasma—flows outward from the sun as the “solar wind” and carries with it solar magnetic field lines that become entangled with the Earth’s own magnetic field lines. Location of “holes” were detected in indicated pink layers, near Earth… (read more: PhysOrg)

(Image: NASA)

ulaulaman:

Travels to the edge of time!

rhamphotheca:

The Fish That Nearly Sank Isaac Newton’s Career

by Stephanie Pappas

An intricate image of a flying fish is one of hundreds of images now searchable online courtesy of the Royal Society, the United Kingdom’s national academy of science.

This striking wood engraving appeared in the 1686 text “Historia Piscium” or “The History of Fishes” by John Ray and Francis Willughby. Now mostly forgotten, the book was groundbreaking for its time. Unfortunately, “The History of Fishes” almost prevented another groundbreaking work from being published: Isaac Newton’s “Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica” (“Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy”).

The lavish engravings in “The History of Fishes” were so expensive to publish that they nearly bankrupted the young Royal Society, at that time only 26 years old. Short of cash, the Society had to rescind its promise to help pay for the production of Newton’s masterpiece.

Fortunately for Newton (and for science), his “Principia” caught astronomer Edmond Halley’s eye. Halley would be remembered mainly for computing the orbit of the comet that bears his name, but at the time he was a young Royal Society clerk. Halley took on the “Principia” as a personal project, raising funds (many from his own pocket) to get the work published in 1687…

(read more: Live Science)    

(image: John Ray and Francis Willughby, 1686, courtesy of the Royal Society)

(via wowgreat)

venusmilk:

Reflection rainbow in René Descartes: Opera philosophica omnia : in tres tomos distributa. Francofurti: Friederici Knochii, pp. 1692.

(via luminousinsect)