…for example, the beauty here.

“…The researchers’ spectroscopic study suggests that graphene grows in the form of tiny islands built of concentric rings of carbon atoms. The islands are strongly bonded to the iridium surface at their perimeters, but are not bonded to the iridium at their centers, which causes them to bulge upward in the middle to form minuscule geodesic domes. By adjusting the conditions as the carbon is deposited on the iridium, the researchers could vary the size of the carbon domes from a few nanometers to hundreds of nanometers across….” Full Slice

“In many biomedical applications, waveguides must interface directly with living cells and tissues, requiring the waveguide constituent to be biocompatible. Biodegradability is also desirable,”… “The use of a biocompatible, biodegradable polymer like silk to guide light opens up new opportunities in biologically based modulation and sensing along with an opportunity to integrate light delivery within living tissue.”…” Full Slice

“…Scientists in the field of structural DNA nanotechnology, including [researcher]’s team, have previously demonstrated that pre-fab DNA elements could be induced to self-assemble, forming useful nanostructural platforms or “tiles.” Such tiles are able to snap together—with jigsaw puzzle-piece specificity—through base pairing, forming larger arrays.

[researcher]’s work…responds to one of the fundamental challenges in nanotechnology and materials science, the construction of molecular-level forms in three dimensions. To do so, the team uses gold nanoparticles, which can be placed on single-stranded DNA, compelling these flexible molecular tile arrays to bend away from the nanoparticles, curling into closed loops or forming spring-like spirals or nested rings, roughly 30 to 180 nanometers in diameter….” Full Slice includes video

nature’s going by a descending frequency
modulo its playing of unenumerated instruments
shows a propensity towards sequential emanation

beauty selfselects

but the newtonian faeces, ever present
the neural cold
the low level phase change
far, far away, unpredictable, tantalizes, hypnotizes

…at least you don’t need to know Dutch to get an idea of what is being said here:

Autodealers in paniek

Autodealers zitten met de handen in het haar.

I’m afraid the link would do you no good.

I updated my post about Walter’s excellent shirt (http://baloney.com/archives/210), and believe I have identified all 51 robots.

Walter, of Fractal Fame, wore an excellent t-shirt to the Baloney gathering yesterday. It had the silhouettes of 51 different famous robots. Of course the Baloneys had to swarm around Walter and try to identify the various images. As we stared intently at his chest, he remarked “This must be how women feel”. We identified a few and insisted he send us a link to the shirt source (Click here to see because I’m about to copyright violate).

Here is the shirt image:

I can’t find a list of the robot names, so I’ve numbered the images and am hoping Baloney.Com readers will fill in the blanks:

NOTE: I believe I have identified all 51 robots on the shirt. They are listed here.

a tooth is like a twip
five percent of a cent
an improvement on thou

Google:
“http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=petulant+finger+pointing+scold&btnG=Google+Search”

sepsis prolepsis:
I will counter in advance
objections to soap

Beginning with a single triangle, replace that triangle with three half-size copies arranged so that their outer border form a new triangle of the same size as the original. Then, replace each of those three triangles with three triangles half that size, and so forth. (Turns out of course, that the fractal pattern is due to the algorithm of shrinking and positioning the shapes, not due to the fact that the initial shape that we began with was a triangle– any plane figure can be used.) This algorithm is easy enough to implement directly and physically, using a flexible medium like polymer clay.

The 2007 Materials Research Society Fall Meeting concluded in Boston on November 30. This was the first time that the popular Science as Art competition was held at an MRS Fall Meeting. Three first place and three second place winners were selected from the various entries. Some of the images are from the nanotechnology domain but most are micro-scale.

What distinguishes fractal geometry within mathematics is an exceptional and uncanny characteristic. Its first steps are not tedious, hard, and unrewarding, but playful and extraordinarily easy, and provide rich reward in terms of stunning graphics. To the mathematician, they bring a bounty of very difficult conjectures that no one can solve. To the artist, they provide backbones around which imagination can play at will. To everyone, a few steps in about any direction bring extraordinary pleasure. Nothing is more serious than play. Let’s all play.—Benoit Mandelbrot