You may well have been scratching your head recently about the 99% and the 1% - figures that keep being bandied about to describe the gap between the rich and the poor. It can take some explaining, too, even if you know what you are talking about. Probably some of the key words of the Occupy Wall Street movement, not to mention the other Occupy sites that have sprung up around the world, a simple and straightforward explanation would be nice!
Step forward the interactive team at the British newspaper The Guardian. Simon Rogers collated the date and the graphics were built in Illustrator and animated in After Effects. The team behind this explanatory video comprises of Mariana Santos, Jonathan Richards, Michael Robinson and Mark McCormick. Thank you, that’s much clearer now! With statistics like this it is a wonder that there hasn't been more of a revolution than the mostly peaceful protests we have seen so far. You can certainly see why the Occupy protests started, that's for sure.
Human history on a geological scale is miniscule, tiny – a blip. The geological time scale goes back four and a half billion years from the fiery birth of the earth to the present day. Now, however, some scientists are calling for an end to the current epoch – the Holocene. They are suggesting we have moved in to a new epoch altogether – the Anthropocene. This translates literally to the Human Epoch. So why the need for change?
The term Anthropocene was only coined ten years ago by Paul Crutzen. The Nobel Prize winning atmospheric chemist, best known for his groundbreaking work on ozone depletion coined the term to satisfy his need to describe the age in which we are now living. It is different from the Holocene, he argues (image of the Early Holocene left). The Anthropocene is the representation of the effect a single species has had on the planet. That species is, of course, us.
His case is that by our actions we are going to leave a permanent signature in our earthly geology. These actions will be traceable back to us even millions of years in the future when scientists (possibly not us by that time) will be able to see the point at which we changed the earth’s oceans and biosphere irreversibly.
The geological time scale is vastly important in terms of understanding what has happened to the earth over hundreds of millions of years. As rock is penetrated it delivers revelations about what life was like ten thousand, ten million or at its very beginnings billions of years ago.
The changes to the time scale have to this point always been natural. The great big meteoric rock that killed off the dinosaurs for example was one point at which the time scale changed.
So indeed was the Ice Age which resulted due to a shift in the earth’s orbit. There are many different epochs and their records are in the rocks. Imagine them like pages in a book, each one making a chapter telling its own part of the planet’s lengthy and complex history.
Not just one book, though – think volumes. It’s like one of those huge episodic Dickens novels but about stone instead.
Each epoch is only a small part of the scale. They are subdivisions of a Period – the one in which we find ourselves currently is the Quaternary Period. Each Period is a subdivision of an Era.
We are in the Cenozoic Era. Still with us?
We are currently in the Holocene epoch, which has only been around since the last Ice Age twelve thousand years and is in terms of geological eras still pretty wet behind the ears itself. Even its name translated from the Greek means entirely new. So, why bother with the change at all – couldn’t we, shouldn’t we simply be included in the Holocene?
Well, that sets the scene for what will no doubt become the hottest of heated debates in geological circles. Like Knights Templar of stones and rocks, there is a body which guards the integrity of the geological time scale. They go under the marvellous title of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (image in the head of a certain Time Lord flashing his telepathic paper and saying I’m with the ICS – cool).
In May they will meet up to discuss the findings of their Anthropocene Working Group (no doubt referred to as the AWG).
The battleground is set – with it seems just under half of the ICS agreeing with the need to change and slightly over half of them in favour of giving the idea the old heave ho. Most foresee, however, that we are living in an age which may well see a massive shift in the contents of the fossil record. However, it was only a few years ago that scientists were predicting a new Ice Age and look what came of that.
It is possible of course (and many geologists agree) that it is way too early to tell if this will truly be the case as – to put it simply – we just haven’t been around long enough to leave anything but a thin sliver on the fossil record.
Although they use the term informally they see no need to, ahem, set it in stone.
Admit it. You can’t take your eyes off this object. This is a tesseract and as such is a 4 dimensional shape. Wait, though. We only live in three dimensions, don’t we? So although this object is beautiful, hypnotising almost – what on earth is it and what is it doing here, confounding our lovely three dimensions with its impertinent fourth? Strictly speaking, what you can see above is a two dimensional projection of a three dimensional simulation of a four dimensional tesseract, that’s what.
OK, at the risk of sounding like a certain Miss Anniston, now for the science bit. Tesseracts are pretty difficult things to describe, let alone understand. Here we go. Essentially a tesseract is the equivalent of a cube, only it is represented within four dimensions (more of that trickster later).
Think of the space with which you are familiar. Put simply; think of the ways in which you can move. There is left to right, forwards and backwards. Finally there is up and down. Three ways, three dimensions. You can pinpoint your location by working out your coordinates in those three directions.
This particular type is known as a Runcitruncated tesseract.
If your partner throws you off a cliff (for whatever reasons) you would be moving forwards, downwards and, depending on the direction of their thrust, either to the left or right. You would be moving within three dimensions.
Oh and this beauty is known as a Cantellated Tesseract
Now, these dimensions are all at right angles to each other – that is, a 90 degree angle (see left). Think of a capital L that you can rotate in any direction you want and you have a right angle. Let’s go now to the fourth dimension (and take it out of your head that the fourth dimension is time, it isn’t).
This gorgeous thing is an omnitruncated tesseract, just in case you didn't already know.
When you go to the fourth dimension (cue Twilight Zone music) you have another direction. That direction is (wait for it) at right angles to each and every one of the three original directions. If your head just exploded, don’t worry. That is quite a normal reaction. Just take it from me that the math works.
OK. So first we go from a two-dimensional cube (which we call a square) to one made of three dimensions (a normal cube). Lay a square flat on whichever surface you want. A flat surface.
Next, add another square above it (that is separated along the vertical direction). This is at right angles to any line you can imagine within the square. So now, just bring those corners together.
The tesseract cometh.
This is exactly the same idea. Bring another (but smaller) cube along and place it inside the first, so any line along the first cube is at right angles to the lines of the second. Did your head just explode again (even though that’s impossible)?
This is what is known as separation along the fourth dimension. What we get is a tesseract. It is impossible to properly visualise in our three dimensional world but what we normally get to see is a small cube inside a bigger one. Much like this.
As for the pesky fourth dimension, most people when asked will answer that it is time. In fact it is an abstract concept (as if you hadn’t already guessed from the above). Mathematicians (not to mention those philosopher types) have been generalizing the rules of 3D space for a couple of hundred years. For fun. Oh, and also for the insights that such a mind (expletive deleted) can offer. So, here, just use your imagination - go with the flow.
A cantellated and a runcinatedtesseract respectively
It was Charles Howard Hinton, British mathematician, bigamist, jail bird and continent hopper who in 1888 first used the term. So if you are bewildered and want to blame anyone, go spit on his grave. You might also have heard tesseracts referred to as hypercubes, but that is a story to generalize another day. Yet, when in doubt, turn to Carl Sagan. Although some argue with the shadow explanation, this is the closest that popular television has come to explaining the tesseract. Any clearer? Well, whether or not you get any of the above, you have to admit. They sure are purdy. Additional Image CreditRight Angle
We are truly living in the age of nano technology, but would you be able, if asked, to explain what exactly the word nano means? No, me neither.
This short animated film explains exactly what a nano meter is to a small girl, using a hair on her head as the starting point. This animation combines excellent production standards with a clear remit of what is explained - and it is done in a way which will leave you wondering why you didn't know that already.
It is created by Zensoft Studios, innovators of digital media experience that educate, inform, and entertain. In their own words: Science Alberta Foundation put us to the test with the challenge to design two short animations that would clearly illustrate the concept of the nano scale and outline the careers that utilize nano materials or develop nano technology.
