Centripetal Notion: category

Figured out by hand no less, I’d love to see this reproduced with a computer.

FFFFOUND! is a new-ish image bookmarking site, kind of like del.icio.us for whatever badass photography/art/design/etc. you find around the internet. Not only that though, the website itself is an aggregate cornucopia of beautiful, stimulating, cortex-crunching imagery taken from everyone else’s submissions.

His explanation traces the seemingly erratic nature of fundamental particles to the symmetries of E8, a simplified representation of an even more complex 248-dimensional object. “My brain exploded with the implications and the beauty of the thing,” he told New Scientist, recalling when he first made the connection between his theories and the shape of E8. “I thought: ‘Holy crap, that’s it!’” Thus far all the particle interactions predicted by his model correspond with observations in the real world. (…)

(video)

Columnar Basalts are rock formations resulting from the quick cooling of lava flow. Fractures form in a random cellular network (similar to soap bubbles, organic cells, etc.), though the average distribution of sides is six, giving the hexagonal structures an eerie man-made appearance.

(video)

(images)

Essentially, if I understand it correctly, it’s like a 2-D shadow of a 248-D sphere, an object so symmetrical you could theoretically rotate it in any direction in up to 248 dimensions and it still appear the same.

His latest takes 40,000 photos tagged “sunset” last year, each positioned horizontally according to the day taken, and vertically according to the hour. You can watch the year progress as the summer and winter solstices fade back and forth.

Robert Lang’s oragami crease patterns are works of art in themselves.