Jamie Condliffe

Visualizing How Sorting Algorithms Work Is as Good as Any Art

We don’t need to tell you that data can be beautiful—but the process of putting it in order can look pretty darn good, too. A new site called SORTING aims to make people aware of just how elegant some of computer science’s most fundamental algorithms can be. The site provides visualizations of all kinds of…

Instagram’s Lux control—that little sun icon that tweaks brightness and contrast—is no longer a binary option. In the iOS app, it now has a slider, so you can vary the amount of the effect you apply.

This Is What Happens When Your Non-Coding Boss Asks You to Code

Whether you’re a PhD student, dev, data analyst or any other code-crunching machine, chances are you’ve written script for people that don’t understand what that entails. This cartoon is for you. Sometimes, people don’t quite understand that writing the code is the easy part; it’s figuring out what to write that takes up the time.…

A Little Intel Cable That Moves Data at a Staggering 800Gbps

This cute little green cable may look innocuous, but it can carry data along its core at a breathtaking 800Gbps. Based on Intel’s Silicon Photonics technology, the cables uses 64 fibers—32 for transmitting and 32 for receiving—each capable of moving data at 25Gbps. Multiply that up, and it can shift 800Gbps in each direction, an…

The first-gen Kindle Paperwhite is finally getting the second-gen software features it’s been waiting for—including Goodreads, kid-friendly FreeTime, improved cloud organization, and a handful of other little benefits.

New Test Predicts Alzheimer’s at Least Three Years in Advance

A new blood test developed by scientists from Georgetown University in Washington DC is capable of predicting onset of Alzheimer’s with 96 percent certainty three years in advance—and that figure could soon stretch to decades. The researchers report their new test in Nature Medicine, explaining that it identifies 10 chemicals in the blood which are…

The Only Time You’ll Ever Feel Bad For a Brown Recluse Spider

Meet Rabbit, the only brown recluse spider you’re ever going to feel sorry for. That’s because you’re watching her be restrained and milked for her super-strong silk. Oof. Rabbit is one of many spiders to be found in research laboratories at the University of Oxford’s Silk Group. But she is, according to researcher Sean Koebley,…

Facebook’s prolific I Fucking Love Science page—which has over 10 million likes—is reportedly making its way to TV with “a mix of live-action, animation and recreations that demonstrate the random manifestations of science that connects us.”

The Pale Blue’n’Red Dot Shows Where Plant Life Is Thriving

Forget the Pale Blue Dot: let’s throw some red in there, too. This false color image shows plant growth across the planet in red where usually you’d expect some green. Captured by NASA’s Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) spacecraft, the image was captured using the Mercury Dual Imaging System’s wide-angle camera. NASA…

Lasso Tricks in Super Slow-Mo Are Totally Mesmerizing

Learning to lasso is insanely difficult, but in this BBC video champion roper “Cowboy Craig” Ingram shows how it’s done in super slow-motion. It’s mesmerizing. The rope appears to defy some of the basic laws of physics, but it’s all down to years of practice and some experts flicks of the wrist. An amazing skill.…

Sony and Panasonic’s New Optical Archival Discs Will Store Up to 1TB

Sony and Panasonic announced last year that they had plans to develop a new, high-capacity optical storage disc—and they weren’t lying. New details indicate that a new Archival Disc format will have a capacity of up to 1TB. Claiming that the Archival Disc format will be hardy—coping well with dust, temperature and humidity—Sony and Panasonic…

Hackers Claim Mt. Gox Still Has Investors’ Bitcoins

The Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox filed for bankruptcy protection last week admitting to an outstanding debt of around $63.6 million. Now, a team of hackers claims that the company still has investors’ bitcoins. Forbes reports that a group of hackers has uploaded files to prove the point—including a spreadsheet of more than a million trades,…

Neil Young’s New Pono Music Player Will Cost $400

Neil Young’s new music player, Pono, has been on the cards for some time. But now, there are finally some real details: from March 15th, you’ll be able to pre-order one on Kickstarter for $400. The big, bright triangular digital music player provides “studio master-quality digital music at the highest audio fidelity possible” according to…

How You Can Use Math to Succeed at Online Dating

Ever since you read about Chris McKinlay gaming OK Cupid to find love, you may’ve wondered if you could do the same the thing. This video gives you some of the math basics which could allow you to perform better on dating sites. From the statistical reasoning of why it may be better to comes…

This Pop Art Image Is Actually a Microscopic Electronic Device

It may look like it belongs on the wall of a 60s home, but this image is in fact a microscopic view of a tiny electronic device. Captured by Matteo Bruna from the Department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge, the image shows a circuit made from graphene, built on a branched structure of…

Entire NBA Game Movements, Visualized

The NBA recently announced that the players of all 30 teams—and the balls they use!—would have tracking devices installed to analyze player movements during games. Now, the first dribles of the fascinating data are available. Fathom Information Design has taken a look at some of the early data from an Oklahoma City versus San Antonio…

Facebook Messenger is finally available on Windows Phone—a mere two years after it made its way to iOS and Android.

All the World’s Land Mammals Compared By Weight

Ever wondered how humans stack up to cows, pigs or elephants if you were to gather ’em all up and weigh them? Wonder no longer, because this chart shows exactly that. Created by XKCD’s Randall Munroe, this visualization shows how the total weight of various land mammals stack up against each other. Each square represents…

How Zuckerberg Courted and Won WhatsApp

How do you woo one of the world’s biggest messaging apps? Flirty emails, whisky and billions of dollars, as it turns out. Forbes has taken a look at the relationship between Mark Zuckerberg and WhatsApp’s Jan Koum on the run-up to the $19 billion takeover. You can read the whole thing over on Forbes, but…

John Gruber believes that iOS 7.1 should ship any day now—because the app required to stream Apple’s SXSW iTunes Festival, which starts in a week, requires the new OS. Let’s see!