How (many pixels) far is it to Mars?

If the Earth were 100 pixels wide, the Moon would be 3000 pixels away. Mars, at its closest, would be 428,000 pixels away. At the current state of space technology, it will take around 150 days to get to Mars.

Distance to Mars website, created by David Paliwoda & Jesse Williams, calculates the earth’s distance to Mars in a super cool way, in pixels.

Better to watch it on Chrome.

See also:

• Minimal Science
• Science songs
• The arrow of time

The Chinese Room

Well this thought experiment is very close to my heart.

Do you believe that Artificial Intelligence is possible? I mean not now, but theoretically in the future? Do you think that we can build a machine so intelligent that it can be considered to think as a human? I do. But John Searle does not. And here is why – and it’s only 60 sec long:

from the Open University

Say it with an illustration

Say it with a quote or illustrate one? Malaysia-based illustrator Tang Yau Hoong pairs each of his illustrations with a famous quote. As simple as that, as beautiful as these posters…

See more after the jump

Do you have what it takes to become a teacher?

It’s the hardest job in the world; do you have what it takes? Take this 2min test and find out:

 

See also:

• The ABCs of cinema
• What kind of reader are you?
• Can you name the typeface?

DNA animated

DNA explained in a visually appealing way.

Created by Territory Studio and creative director David Sheldon-Hicks & art director William Samuel for BBC Knowledge & Learning Explainer series.

See also:

• (notes on) biology
• The DNA of a city
• How big is our universe?

Minimal science

When minimalism expresses the essence of meaning, design comes to honor the pioneering work of some of the world’s most famous scientists. From Darwin’s theory of evolution to Pythagoras’ theorem and Archimedes’ principle, Mumbai-based graphic designer Kapil Bhagat creates clever typographic posters of scientists’ names based on each genius’s breakthrough discovery.

See more after the jump

For the love of words

And not your basic, everyday words. Words that sound beautiful. Words that describe complex feelings or situations. Ancient words and neologisms. Words that exist for the benefit of word-lovers. Otherwordly is a tumblr that collects the most particular words from languages around the world. Here is a small anthology.