Tag: science

  • Jupiter’s New Moons

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    Brendan Barry
    in

    Yesterday, space nerds were alerted to the news that 12 new moons have been discovered in orbit of Jupiter. These are much smaller than Jupiter’s moon Ganymede, which is the largest moon in the Solar System and is larger than even Mercury. The point is that there are almost certainly no Ganymede-esque moons orbiting Jupiter…

  • The Brightest Night Lites

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    Brendan Barry
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    Today is Friday. We all made it through yet another week. So let us look up into the evening sky tonight and see the Hertzsprung–Russel diagram in action. Or, we can take xkcd’s expanded version and just enjoy ourselves. Credit for the piece goes to Randall Munroe.

  • Spanish Silver

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    Brendan Barry
    in

    A few weeks back now the Economist posted a graphic about the link between lead, silver, and the rise and fall of the Roman Empire. But not in the way you probably think. Instead, they graph the appearance of lead deposits in the glaciers of Greenland. For the full explanation you should read the short…

  • Lunar Observations

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    Brendan Barry
    in ,

    Monday night I was doing some work outside and when I turned around to head inside I was struck by the brilliance of an object in the night sky. I had seen the Moon rise earlier in the evening, but this was far to the east. It was identifiable as a dot, not just a…

  • A Wetter Midwest

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    Brendan Barry
    in

    Here in Philadelphia, I think yesterday was the first day it had not rained in over a week. Not that everyday was a drenching storm, but at least showers passed through along with some downpours and definitely grey skies. But what about my old home, Chicago? Well, FiveThirtyEight turned to a longer-term look and examined…

  • Study Up

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    Brendan Barry
    in

    It’s Friday, everybody. We made it. So now go and hit the books this weekend and study up. Thanks to xkcd, we know a little bit more about areas of research. I just am wondering where design is. Or economics. Credit for the piece goes to Randall Munroe.

  • Knuckle Cracking

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    Brendan Barry
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    I used to work with a designer who was an expert knuckle cracker. So when I saw this article from the Guardian last week, I was hoping that it contained some kind of an illustration. Thankfully it did. What I like about the graphic is its simplicity. The illustration does not add a lot of extraneous details…

  • Warmer Winters

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    Brendan Barry
    in

    Philadelphia is expecting a little bit of snow today, 20 March. We should not be seeing too much accumulate if anything, but still, flakes will likely be in the air this evening. That made me think of this piece from just last week where the New York Times looked at the change in winter temperatures…

  • Undersea Mining

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    Brendan Barry
    in

    Today’s piece isn’t strictly about data visualisation. Instead it’s a nice article from the BBC that explores the nascent industry of undersea mining. What caught my interest was the story of Soviet submarine K-129, which sank mysteriously in the middle of the Pacific. But that isn’t even half the story, so if you are interested…

  • The 2017–18 Flu Season

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    Brendan Barry
    in

    Last week I covered the Pennsylvania congressional district map changes quite a bit. Consequently I was not able to share a few good pieces of work. Let’s hope nothing goes terribly wrong this week and maybe we can catch up. From last Friday we have this nice piece from FiveThirtyEight looking at the spread of influenza…