Very cool: How to visualize the very small

[pokerfan]

Just click on the image and move the slider to smoothly zoom from the visible to the atomic.

http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/begin/cells/scale/">

[FiveGoodMen]

1. Yup, I like that.

[graywarrior]

2. That is wicked cool!

[HillWilliam]

4. Wicked cool indeed! n/t

[denbot]

3. Nice find..

Thanks for posting that.

[pokerfan]

7. I subscribe to a visualization blog

http://flowingdata.com

Most of the time it's pretty boring but when it's not, it's usually extremely cool.

[Staph]

5. K&R!

How cool!

[unpossibles]

6. very cool! nt

[Greyskye]

8. I'm sharing this!

Thanks!

:thumbsup:

K&R

[tridim]

9. Sweet! But why end at the atom?

The ratio of the atom to the electron and the proton to the quark is impressive.

[caraher]

13. Well, the electron is truly a point particle as far as we know

so the atom/electron ratio gives a divide-by-zero error, right?

I think they stop where they do because it's done by a genetics center, so in their work they need not visualize anything smaller than atoms. Which is a shame because it wouldn't be much more work to go to atomic nuclei then at least nucleons (I'm not sure offhand whether quarks have a meaningful "size" so I'm not sure whether they could go further with particles).

[pokerfan]

10. There must be one out there for astronomical scales

If not, then I'm betting that there soon will be. We've all seen the various videos that accomplish the same thing and I have a battered copied of http://www.amazon.com/Revised-Scientific-American-Library-Paperback/dp/0716760088">Powers of Ten that must be forty years old.

An astronomical version would traverse a similar number of magnitudes: Planck length is about 10⁻³⁵ meters. The diameter of the observable universe is about 10²⁷ meters. So a hundred microns is approximately the 'mid point' between the largest thing and the smallest thing possible (according to our current understanding anyway).

[Canuckistanian]

11. Try this

http://www.sciforums.com/showthread.php?t=79167

Look for the heading "Hey, Look what I found"

[pokerfan]

12. Thanks

[DavidDvorkin]

14. Very cool, and also one of those rare cases where

Flash is worthwhile.

[amyrose2712]

15. Quite cool. nt

[jayfish]

16. Very Cool!

Too bad it biological only though. I'd love to go to the sub-atomic level with it.

Jay