The Dutch Droste company’s famous cocoa packaging is the origin of the name “Droste effect”. The nurse on the package carries a plate with a package, on which there is the same package, etc, etc…

Click on the images to view more in the gallery and the mathematical explanation.

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The IAU (International Astronomical Union) has voted to ban Pluto as a planet and instead call it a dwarf planet. Also, Pluto and its moon, Charon, is no longer in a planet-satellite relationship, but rather a binary planet system, because they orbit each other around a center of mass that is outside either body. So we do not have twelve planets, but eight instead. Click on the image to read more.

Remember those strange Sodaplay’s creations? They are strange, yet amazing machines and you can construct them virtually. Well, Theo Jansen makes them in real life and all of these things are moved by wind. He calls them “sculptures”. Beautiful engineering/art.

BMW’s ad featuring Theo Jansen.

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Remember this question given short time ago by Dr. Stephen Hawking? Here is his follow-up on the topic.

One is only micrometers wide. The other is billions of light-years across. One shows neurons in a mouse brain. The other is a simulated image of the universe. Together they suggest the surprisingly similar patterns found in vastly different natural phenomena. David Constantine.

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The world’s astronomers, under the auspices of the International Astronomical Union (IAU), have concluded two years of work defining the lower end of the planet scale – what defines the difference between “planets” and “solar system bodies”. If the definition is approved by the astronomers gathered 14-25 August 2006 at the IAU General Assembly in Prague, our Solar System will consist of 12 planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Ceres, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, Charon and 2003 UB313.

The 12 planets
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