Leap Day

Happy day which only comes once every four years! I'm sure that there are many superstitions associated with this day, even though it's added to the calendar for mere convenience.

Tomorrow is my PhD's anniversary as well, which is... less exciting. It's just another reminder that time is trickling away. There's never enough time, it seems, to find all the answers.

Scale of the Universe 2

Or, how to feel small and insignificant.

Humans can't comprehend large numbers. It's only when a bigger and a smaller number or objects are placed side by side that the differences are obvious, and even then it can be hard to comprehend. The creators of the Scale of the Universe series have done a great thing here.

(The Large Hadron Collider is bigger than Vatican City? Seriously?)

(Actually it's bigger than Uluru as well. And the Titanic looks quite comfortable sitting next to the International Space Station.)

(I need to think a little.)

Update XXX: Thirty Posts Titled "Update"

Quick check in here - been stupidly busy. SO MANY EXPERIMENTS. I am a fiend of science.

Whatever that means.

There was a great short story in Nature last month. Go take a gander. (Make sure that you're not eating anything, or intending to eat anything. There's a fair amount of squick.)