Beautiful Diagrams
May 17, 2011 7:06 AM Subscribe
Beautiful scientific diagrams?
I just watched The Beauty of Diagrams and am fascinated by it. I also already have all the Tufte books, so I'm familiar with Minard's Napoleon campaign and John Snow's cholera map. What else is out there that is beautiful and classic?
I just watched The Beauty of Diagrams and am fascinated by it. I also already have all the Tufte books, so I'm familiar with Minard's Napoleon campaign and John Snow's cholera map. What else is out there that is beautiful and classic?
NYPL's Pictures of Science: 700 Years of Scientific and Medical Illustration digital collection is not exactly like the images you've described, but your question instantly made me think of the late19thC Trouvelot astronomical drawings I saw there.
posted by activitystory at 7:14 AM on May 17, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by activitystory at 7:14 AM on May 17, 2011 [1 favorite]
This is probably too new to be classic, but I'm still partial to the radial tree of life.
posted by Drastic at 7:22 AM on May 17, 2011 [2 favorites]
posted by Drastic at 7:22 AM on May 17, 2011 [2 favorites]
Again more new than classic, but where beautiful diagrams are concerned, David McCandless currently holds the monopoly for me, with Information is Beautiful
posted by greenish at 7:27 AM on May 17, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by greenish at 7:27 AM on May 17, 2011 [1 favorite]
Der Mensch als Industriepalast (Man as Industrial Palace) is pretty neat. Human body, rendered as an industrial factory.
posted by pseudostrabismus at 7:34 AM on May 17, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by pseudostrabismus at 7:34 AM on May 17, 2011 [1 favorite]
I'm not sure if it's classic, but I've always been a fan of the expanded Kreb's cycle. At the high level it's kind of meh, but when you zoom in the minutia it's fascinating.
(And if you ever need to know where the fourth carbon in a glucose goes when you eat it, you can work it out.
posted by Kid Charlemagne at 8:06 AM on May 17, 2011
(And if you ever need to know where the fourth carbon in a glucose goes when you eat it, you can work it out.
posted by Kid Charlemagne at 8:06 AM on May 17, 2011
This is my favorite diagram in all of science
Is interactive okay?
These are some my favorite video diagrams, my extended collection is here
posted by Blasdelb at 8:18 AM on May 17, 2011 [2 favorites]
Is interactive okay?
These are some my favorite video diagrams, my extended collection is here
posted by Blasdelb at 8:18 AM on May 17, 2011 [2 favorites]
Nature!
posted by onegoodthing at 8:18 AM on May 17, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by onegoodthing at 8:18 AM on May 17, 2011 [1 favorite]
This global exergy chart is beautiful in it's encapsulation of earth's energy flows. As a combined bubble and Sankey chart it has a simple aesthetic. To me it sparks the imagination as a map of every possible energy future for earth.
posted by FissionChips at 10:24 AM on May 17, 2011
posted by FissionChips at 10:24 AM on May 17, 2011
Some of these visualizations of sparse matrices are pretty stunning.
posted by AkzidenzGrotesk at 11:56 AM on May 17, 2011
posted by AkzidenzGrotesk at 11:56 AM on May 17, 2011
I can't point to one stand-out exemplar, but energy flow diagrams often look cool, and are a bit mind-boggling in their ambition to account for every single erg (or MillionBarrelsOfOil) that passes through the Earth.
Google Image shows a good selection. I like this one. And so does Ezra Klein.
posted by benito.strauss at 12:01 PM on May 17, 2011
Google Image shows a good selection. I like this one. And so does Ezra Klein.
posted by benito.strauss at 12:01 PM on May 17, 2011
Chocolate Pickle, "The Anatomy of Mermaids" is so frustrating - there's not enough resolution to even cleanly make out the text, after "expanding" the pics.
posted by IAmBroom at 6:15 PM on May 17, 2011
posted by IAmBroom at 6:15 PM on May 17, 2011
Also, I wish the artist had closer ties to a biologist... Lots of faux biology, which is appropriate to Victorian "monster" frauds, but it could have been more real.
posted by IAmBroom at 6:16 PM on May 17, 2011
posted by IAmBroom at 6:16 PM on May 17, 2011
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by exogenous at 7:10 AM on May 17, 2011 [4 favorites]