Guys I don't remember if I ever shared at the time... but several months ago, I watched an absolutely kick-ass bbc documentary called 'the code'. it was about math!! AND I LOVED IT!! I don't even know myself anymore.
In line with the thoughts Jason has been posting about losing ones scientific mojo, I'd like to share this (possibly again) because this was one of the few things I've watched in a long time that really grabbed me by my gut and made me feel that old "scientific wonder and excitement" feeling... it gave me the feeling like in those heady days where we were all just experimenting with Attenborough, expanding our minds, snorting lines of fantastic creatures from the deepest trenches of the ocean, shooting up with zooplankton for the first time...
So there's this concept. Of the 'Five Platonic Solids', which are the only three dimensional solids that are perfectly symmetrical.
Anywho. I offer you this video as a teaser as to why these are amazing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bosdr8N1iBQ
And then this video of Carl Sagan trying to explain the same thing except I think he's high on zooplankton*:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQPYzlY2fzE
And then, to ruin any chance of productivity you might have, a big juicy hour long video of the original BBC documentary...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lov-AjxA7kI
*Sidenote: I'm supposed to be working this weekend, which is what finally drove me to get off my butt and blog. Procrastination at its finest. But anyway. Oh Carl Sagan. I've watched the Carl Sagan video like five times now and I'm still like... whaaaaat? He starts talking about how some guys had to keep the square root of two secret at all costs, and I think that is an amazing jumping off point for a potential comic or screenplay to be written, based on a true story...staring Keifer Sutherland as an unstable rogue CIA agent...suggested titles include:
- Indiana Jones and the Square Root of Doom
- (sqrt 2) Monkeys (costaring Bruce Willis)
- (sqrt 2) Days Later
- I am number 1.41421356237...
SO COOL. Love this stuff. It reminds me of the time in grad school I saw a Nova episode on fractals and almost lost my shit (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LemPnZn54Kw). I became obsessed with them. Anything that combines biology and math/numbers/"rules" does it for me.
ReplyDelete