dataviz

What Visualization Best Illustrated A Tricky Scientific Concept For You?

Science is full of ideas and facts that, even when they’re most plainly stated, can still be incredibly slippery. But sometimes all it takes to have that eureka moment when everything clicks into place is a single, perfect picture. Today, we want to know about the data visualizations, infographics, and illustrations that made a tricky…

io9 Ria Misra Mar 4

This Map Of A Week’s Worth Of Global Shipping Traffic Is Mesmerizing

You order something, it ships, and a few days (and a few checks through package tracking) later it’s at your doorstep. It’s a relatively simple process — until you start looking at all the packages moving worldwide at once. And then that simple process becomes a vast, complicated, and even kind of beautiful, network. This…

io9 Ria Misra Feb 24

How The Most Common Job In Every State Has Changed In The Last 36 Years

The job market is an elusive, constantly shifting thing. Yet, for all that, as this map that takes us through the last 3 and a half decades of jobs in America shows, there are some fascinating patterns —and one clear choice for the single most common job in all of America right now. The map…

io9 Ria Misra Feb 10

These Charts Show Which Foods Are Most Likely To Be Wasted

Wasting food is a problem all over the world, but are all kinds of foods equally likely to be wasted? The answer is no. Some foods are especially prone to it, while others are likely to be used much more carefully. Here are the world’s most wasted common foods in helpful chart form. At the…

io9 Ria Misra Feb 9

This Chart Shows The Worst Diseases That Don’t Get Enough Research Money

Do the diseases that claim the most years of our lives really get the most research funding? This chart takes on that question — and reveals which diseases we may need to focus more on. The chart is the work of Catherine Richards a staff scientist at the Hutchinson Institute for Cancer Outcomes Research on…

io9 Ria Misra Jan 16

Every Job In America And What It Pays, Charted

What are people doing in America for work and just how much are they making at those jobs? This chart, which looks at the distribution of Americans through different industries and their median salaries, answers that question. The chart is the work of Nathan Yau over at Flowing Data, who used the new stats from…

io9 Ria Misra Jul 2

Watch As The U.S. Population Goes West Over The Last 220 Years

A lot has changed in the U.S. over the course of the last 220 years, but one thing has remained the same: The steady migration of the population more and more westwards with each passing decade. The visualization was put together by the U.S. Census and tracks the Mean Center of Population, which the Census…

io9 Ria Misra Jun 23

This Video Puts The Size Of Earth’s Moon In Perspective

How big is the moon? One way to answer that question is approximately 3,400 km across. But another way is with this animated comparison that looks at how the moon stacks up against some other objects — both earthbound and those among the stars. To see the size of the moon in comparison to both…

io9 Ria Misra May 8

A Map Of Every Earthquake Over The Last Century

This map takes every quake from the last century and plots them out to give a sense of the incredible scope — and the power — of earthquakes. The map is the work of Nathan Yau at FlowingData. Using USGS stats, Yau plotted 72,000 earthquakes topping magnitudes of 5.0 scale from the last century, each…

io9 Ria Misra Apr 15

This Map Shows Which Jobs Are Most Unique To Your State

The Bureau of Labor Statistics has crunched the numbers of the jobs Americans have now. The most common profession overall for the nation: office and administrative support. But what about the jobs that are both unique to your state and common there? The findings are the result of a numbers crunch using BLS data from…

io9 Ria Misra Apr 10

This 3D Model Reconstructs A 110 Million-Year-Old Dinosaur Chase

We may not actually be able see the harrowing chase that pitted a theropod against a sauropod over 110 million years ago. But — thanks to this 3D model reconstructing what happened — we can at least get a pretty good view of the aftermath. Though the real action happened millions of years ago, the…

io9 Ria Misra Apr 4

A Map Of Everywhere In The World People Are Migrating To And From

This web may not look much like a map at first glance, but it is. Instead of mapping physical geography, though, this map charts where in the world people are moving to and from, to give us a snapshot look at the worldwide migration patterns over 20 years. Top image: A working map of migration…

io9 Ria Misra Apr 1

Uh, Why Is This Satellite Image Of The U.S. Glowing Red?

This satellite image of an eerie red glow lingering over the midwestern and eastern US may look alarming, but it actually comes bearing good news. So what’s behind the red glow? It’s photosynthetic activity over four years from 2007-2011. And using that data, scientists at NASA say that they’ve found that the midwestern U.S. is…

io9 Ria Misra Mar 31

Energy Drink Sales Are Insane, But They Won’t Crush Coffee. Here’s Why.

Here’s some news to file under “dystopian future”: Energy drink sales are skyrocketing so quickly that analysts are predicting it could replace coffee as America’s preferred caffeine-delivery system. But there may yet be some light at the end of the caffeine-tunnel. Roberto Ferdman over at Quartz put together this pair of fear-inducing graphs using data…

io9 Ria Misra Mar 26

This infographic shows you the insane scale of our solar system

You may have seen graphics comparing the objects in our solar system by size, but this visualization offers a slightly different spin on the theme, by comparing objects by their total mass. Plus, it also features 460 tiny versions of former planet Pluto bouncing off of Earth like a game of interstellar marbles. The visualization…

io9 Ria Misra Feb 27

One easy way to visualize numbers that are very big or very small

When numbers get either very, very large or very, very small, it’s hard to conceptualize exactly what they mean. But this vintage video is a simple guide to comprehending numerical extremes. Made back in 1977, the “Powers of 10” video was recommended by commenter OmegaUnlimited, after reading this piece on just how to comprehend incomprehensibly…

io9 Ria Misra Feb 26

A map of music that’s popular in your state—and only in your state

Musical preferences have become increasingly uniform across the country, but there are still some pretty strong regional preferences. This map breaks down those distinctive preferences along state lines. The map is the work of Paul Lamere, who used musical data from 250,000 listeners through streaming service The Echo Nest, where he’s the Director of Developer…

io9 Ria Misra Feb 26

One graph explaining why you should always order a larger pizza

Good news! Mathematics has confirmed what we already suspected: You should most definitely be ordering a larger pizza. But “I’m not hungry for that much pizza”, you say? Allow me to refute your argument with two simple words: Cold. Pizza. But if you’re still not convinced, check out this graph that Quoctrung Bui over at…

io9 Ria Misra Feb 26

This map of the internet is not just super-detailed, but worth framing

This ridiculously intricate map charts out the hidden geography and scope of the internet, ranging from assigning proportional landmass to the world’s most popular websites, to drawing out the large swaths of free-flowing spam, to creating a color-coded look at the strength of internet surveillance. The map is the work of Martin Vargic, an amateur…

io9 Ria Misra Jan 31

Google Charts the History of Modern Music

Google recently began tracking its user’s music uploads. What’s it doing with that data? A number of things, to be sure, and here’s one we like very much: Google Research has created a rich, multilayered, interactive chart of musical evolution by visualizing which albums from eras-gone-by remain in our music libraries today. Google’s visualization (dubbed,…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Jan 18

What Visualization Best Illustrated A Tricky Scientific Concept For You?

This Map Of A Week’s Worth Of Global Shipping Traffic Is Mesmerizing

How The Most Common Job In Every State Has Changed In The Last 36 Years

These Charts Show Which Foods Are Most Likely To Be Wasted

This Chart Shows The Worst Diseases That Don’t Get Enough Research Money

Every Job In America And What It Pays, Charted

Watch As The U.S. Population Goes West Over The Last 220 Years

This Video Puts The Size Of Earth’s Moon In Perspective

A Map Of Every Earthquake Over The Last Century

This Map Shows Which Jobs Are Most Unique To Your State

This 3D Model Reconstructs A 110 Million-Year-Old Dinosaur Chase

A Map Of Everywhere In The World People Are Migrating To And From

Uh, Why Is This Satellite Image Of The U.S. Glowing Red?

Energy Drink Sales Are Insane, But They Won’t Crush Coffee. Here’s Why.

This infographic shows you the insane scale of our solar system

One easy way to visualize numbers that are very big or very small

A map of music that’s popular in your state—and only in your state

One graph explaining why you should always order a larger pizza

This map of the internet is not just super-detailed, but worth framing

Google Charts the History of Modern Music

‘Marvel Rivals’ Wants to Start Being More Than Just a Hero Shooter

‘How Do We Make Sure That Claude Behaves Itself?’: Anthropic Invited 15 Christians for a Summit

See the Next ‘Hunger Games’ in This Trip Down Memory Lane

Indie Animation Is Having a Moment on YouTube

Trump’s World Liberty Financial Makes FTX-esque Move, Borrows Against Its Own Crypto Token

Steven Soderbergh Wanted to Take ‘Bond’ Back to the ’60s

If You Make Fart Music, ChatGPT Will Be the Most Supportive Girlfriend You Could Ask For

This Loud-Ass Party Speaker Almost Got Me High AF

Asus Zenbook A16 Review: Start Considering Snapdragon on PC, for Real

Aqara Thermostat Hub W200 Review: Almost Better than My Ecobee

HP Omen Max 45L Review: 4K60 Gaming Has Never Been So Easy

Ecovacs Winbot W3 Omni Review: Window Cleaning Robots Have a Long Way to Go

AirPods Max 2 vs. Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen): Which ANC Headphones Win?

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