A Boy And His Atom

I thought that Guinness had a World Record for just about anything, but World’s Smallest Stop-Motion Film is a new one for me!  Introducing A Boy And His Atom by IBM.

Capturing, positioning and shaping atoms to create an original motion picture on the atomic-level is a precise science and entirely novel
Andreas Heinrich, IBM Research

The stop motion was made by a team of IBM’s nanophysicists not only having a bit of fun, but gaining amazing insight into how to move individual (yes, individual!) atoms.

Crucial in the field of atomic memory and data storage, a scanning tunnelling microscope uses a super-sharp needle to carefully select and move molecules of carbon monoxide along a copper surface to extremely precise locations.  Then, in a similar fashion to more traditional stop-motion style capture, the 100-million times magnified image is recorded and then the atoms are moved again to create the next frame.

With the potential to create devices containing unprecedented levels of storage, this is a very exciting step towards the future of computing and “the new frontiers of math and science”.

More information on the science behind IBM’s big data storage here, and you can see how they made the actual tiny film here.

Saul Bass Google Doodle

It takes something special to be recognised by Google and given your own Doodle, and that is exactly what happened today when the more than worthy Saul Bass was honoured with his own Google Doodle on what would have been his 93rd birthday.

Certainly one of my favourites, Saul Bass was a fantastic graphic designer (and Oscar winning film maker!), known particularly for his bold and creative style of film title sequences, posters and logos.

The animated Google Doodle above is inspired by some of his more famous works including those from Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, Stanley Kubrick’s Spartacus and Otto Preminger’s Anatomy of a Murder.  Superb work.

Bass’ portfolio of work also included a number of corporate logos, some of which still remain unchanged today.  Though even taking into account those that have been updated, the average lifespan of a Saul Bass logo is an impressive 34 years!

A great execution of a brilliant idea but then, being Google, we’ve come to expect nothing less.

More on the life of Saul Bass here and a fantastic looking book on the subject here.

Hyperlapse Road Trip

This is brilliant to watch.  Hit full screen, put your feet up and cruise to some very cleverly manipulated images woven together from Google Street View by the brilliantly creative folks at digital agency Teehan+Lax.

You can even make your very own hyperlapse (good fun!) using their very clever JavaScript here.

Via Good.

Chicken Or The Egg?

The age old question: Which came first the chicken or the egg?

Mitchell Moffit and Gregory Brown from AsapSCIENCE take a look at the perplexing conundrum that has “baffled humanity from as early as the Ancient Greeks”.

So, chicken or proto-chicken?  Egg or proto-egg?  It seems the real answer has more to do with semantics and our naming system than anything else!

What do you think?

The Chemical Brothers – Velodrome

With the spectacular closing ceremony behind us we’re now in that awkward post-Olympic, pre-Paralympic, sport-less void.  In an attempt to fill the inevitable lull of the past weeks’ worth of near-constant streaming and watching of sport I came across CG Studio Crystal‘s animation of The Chemical Brothers‘ official Olympic anthem, Velodrome.

The flurry of colour and neon streaks are a fantastic compliment for the electronic song, and the Tron-inspired graphics are perfectly in tune with the events that took place on the track.

The stunning velodrome, by Hopkins Architects, is definitely my favourite of the Olympic venues.

Don’t get me wrong, the Olympic Stadium and the Aquatics Centre are both stunning, but as a keen cyclist myself there is a reasonable amount of bias behind my opinion!

Proteigon

Brilliant stop-motion animation from Steven Briand.

Not your run of the mill character-based stop motion (though there’s absolutely nothing wrong with them!), this caught my eye and stood out because of the exquisite creativity and execution used in the video.

Check out his other work here, particularly “Frictions“.

Mayamada Kickstarter

Regular readers will probably recognise the name Mayamada - I’ve featured their brilliant t-shirts on Inspirational Geek before.

Now the Japanese-inspired clothing brand is looking to branch out and they’ve recently launched a Kickstarter campaign to take their brand up a level (if you are unaware of how awesome Kickstarter is then take a look here).

Take a few moments to watch the video below from brand member Lao K explaining how they want to create a grassroots manga based on a collection of stories from the Mayamada brand, then head over here to pledge your support and back them.

If you need any further endorsement, this is the first Kickstarter campaign I’ve actually backed (so you know it must be good!).  You can pledge from $1 upwards and there are some fantastic incentives offered to spur you on.

Full info on their Kickstarter here and, as ever you can follow their Twitter and Facebook escapades too.

Lego Euro Moments

With Euro 2012 kicking off in Poland and Ukraine later this afternoon, what better way to celebrate than with a lunchtime fix of previous iconic moments from the Euros recreated in wonderful Lego stop motion.

My favourite is Gazza’s incredible goal against Scotland back in 1996, but the original commentary of “Brolin, Dahlin, Brolin… brilliant”, and Stuart Pearce’s penalty bring back some great memories for me.  Lego and the Euros, what’s not to love!

Full tournament match calendar here.

Folding A Piece Of Paper

A fantastic animation from the team at TED-Ed, revealing how folding a piece of paper just 45 times can get you to the moon!

As TED themselves put, the unbelievable potential of exponential growth is indeed a lesson worth sharing.

Via the ever curious exp.lore.

One Hour Per Second

One hour per second, that’s right, it’s not a typo, it’s the utterly staggering statistic released from the Google Data Arts Team (the same folks who do the Chrome Experiments) looking at the volume of video content uploaded to YouTube around the world!

If you’re still having trouble visualising those astounding quantities then head over to www.onehourpersecond.com for some more help in relating to those numbers.  Oh, and turn your speakers on for the full site experience (but beware the Nyan Cat!).

Just wait until fibre optic connections are readily available, and HD is the norm.  A pretty powerful spectacle I’m sure you’ll agree.