A bit off topic for Ava - Original T-shirts for the discerning
Friday Friday, April 20, 2012 by Ian PettmanOk, this is a bit off topic for Ava: Original T-shirts for the discerning. Is Science becoming ever more sexy?
Let me take a short while to explain. In general the amount of data we have "at our fingertips" is increasing at the same rate as the power of the computers which generate this data. There has been a "law" associated with this phenomenon. It's called Moore's Law. It's usually and simply associated with the ever increasing power of computer chips.
What has this go to do with T-shirts? Well these days you can make your own. But if you do, IMHO a stunning image is always helpful.
I've always been interested in Astronomy: after all, the origin of our universe is quite an important question (as questions go). And the images that come from modern telescopes are ever more stunning.
Why?
Seems a bit obvious once its pointed out. Moore's law is associated with the amount of data that we can gather about everything. These days Astronomy is powered by the same technology as computers: chips that detect light, processors that control the huge (sometimes multiple) mirrors that focus ever more accurately on the most distant objects the human race will ever see.
Lunchtime saw me browsing the article "How big data is changing Astronomy again". Now it is a bit stodgy in some ways. But one of the links led me to the good old NASA site and The Majestic Sombrero Galaxy (M104), and also the Hubble space telescope site Much as I trust NASA to understate their achievements: in this case, a few biilion stars do nicely for the word "Majestic".
For your information, there is also the index page. Just take a few minutes to browse through literally hundreds of images selected for their impact. They are available in various sizes, sometimes it takes a couple of clicks to find the right one for the T-shirt. What is really nice (to me) is that the images are largely public domain, so you can go to a "design your own T-shirt" site and legally upload a galaxy or two to display on your chest, back or indeed anywhere else the t-shirt company will print the picture!
And if you think you'd like it as your desktop wall paper then just click on the picture to go to the various resolutions available.