Large Deviations

an atlas for cooler science.

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[Fig. B.26] Wenyan-Lang is a recent project computer language, the first to be completely based on ancient Chinese. In the picture is a representation of a Mandelbrot set and if the code which generated it. #artscience #computerscience #mandelbrot

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[Fig. A.53] Bird strikes on planes can be extremely dangerous: as a paragon, a bird hit on a landing plane is equivalent to a 100kg ball being dropped on the ground from 15m. This is the most serious when occurring in jet engines - quickly resulting in fatal damages. #artscience

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[Fig. C.26] Paul Erdős has been one of the most prolific mathematicians of all time. He collaborated with scientists of all ranks: it is for this reason that the Erdős Number was established as an ironic measurement of the distance between anyone and himself. #erdos

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[Fig. A.52] Avalanche Photodiodes are detectors for light which can even detect single photons. However, they are quite delicate: here a laser melted the gold electrical contacts (on the borders of the square) and drilled a hole in it. #artscience #apd #detector

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[Fig. F.19] “Reflections” is a piece by the artist and designer Will Yates-Johnson that has been exposed at the London science museum. It is based on an MIT-owned parabolic mirror photo, originally taken by the photographer Bernice Abbot. #artscience #mirrors #photography #art

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[Fig. B.25] From micro features in sound recordings, together with AI, one can deduce many more information than expected regarding the original environment in which the signal was recorded. This is used to distinct real from fake distress signals. #artscience #ai #sound

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[Fig. A.51] Blades in wind turbines can be as long as 100m, almost double as long as the one being transported in picture. #artscience #wind #turbines #transport #tech

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[Fig. A.50] The opposite of anechoic rooms [Fig. A.33] are reverberation rooms: walls are out at irregular positions, and parabolic panels deflect sound in all possible directions, letting absorption be discouraged. #artscience #reverberation #echo #sound

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[Fig. A.49] At the 1964 New York World EXPO, AT&T presented the Picturephone, the first device that allowed people to make video calls. "Picturephone rooms" were also opened in Chicago, where customers could make videocalls for $6.67 minute. #artscience #at&t #picturephone

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[Fig. F.18] Leonardo Sciascia is author of one of the most fascinating and beautiful books on the Italian disappeared physicist Ettore Majorana [Fig. C.16]. #artscience #majorana #physics

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[Fig. B.24] GRIP-75 was a computer graphics system used to reconstruct and visualize the 3D structure of big molecules and proteins. Based on a IBM System/360 computer, it was among the first to use a joystick for the dynamical rotation of images. #artscience #ibm #proteins

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[Fig. F.17] “Fata Morgana" is a peculiar optical effect which is produced by layers of air close to the horizon having different density and thus refractive index. They act as lenses, creating the illusion that an object (e.g. a boat) is floating. #artscience #FataMorgana

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[Fig. C.25] Max Mathews was a pioneer of computer music. He worked in the Bell labs since 1954, giving contributions in digital audio synthesis and human-computer interaction. As an example, in 1961 he arranged a track of computer synthetized human voice. #artscience #audio

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[Fig. B.23] IBM 2250 display in 1965 was the first graphic terminal to be attached to a computer. Unlike most of the monitors display raster images, it used vector format, with a 1024x1024 grid and a light pen to interact. #artscience #ibm2250 #computerscience

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[Fig. F.16] There are many theories on how cats became the official animal of the internet. When neural networks began scraping YouTube, the concept of “cat” was in fact the first to be isolated. #artscience #neuralNetworks #cats

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[Fig. A.48] GRAPES-3 muon telescope is a facility born from the collaboration between Japan and India. It studies modifications in muon energies and it is used to describe anomalies in cosmic rays and solar phenomena. #artscience #grapes3 #muon #telescope

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[Fig. D.30] Fractals are shapes built with recursive patterns at increasingly smaller scales. #artscience #fractals #geometry

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[Fig. B.22] "The Minivac 601 is a unique digital computer, the small brother of huge electronic brains that are the new tools of science and industry". It was a very simple electromechanical computer developed in 1961 by C. Shannon, and devised as an educational toy. #minivac

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[Fig. A.47] LHCb is one of the experiments at CERN, focusing on the differences between matter and antimatter. Some of the detectors that are used rely on Cherenkov radiation: a cone of light is used to compute trajectories and positions. #artscience #cern #lhcb