Seeing Beyond the Human Eye

Technology defies the boundaries of human perception. From photomicrography to astrophotography, size and distance are no longer barriers, and through slow-mo and timelapse, we are allowed to see time and humanity in a new light. Through our curiosity and thirst for the unknown, the beauty of the universe can now be explored beyond the limits of the naked eye.
LINK: Youtube

This is our universe, can you comprehend it?

This is our universe, can you comprehend it? LINK: Youtube

BBC Horizon 2010: What Happened Before the Big Bang

They are the biggest questions that science can possibly ask: where did everything in our universe come from? How did it all begin? For nearly a hundred years, we thought we had the answer: a big bang some 14 billion years ago.
But now some scientists believe that was not really the beginning. Our universe may have had a life before this violent moment of creation.
Horizon takes the ultimate trip into the unknown, to explore a dizzying world of cosmic bounces, rips and multiple universes, and finds out what happened before the big bang. This video is part one of six. More at the LINK: Youtube

Chrome-plated Universe

Recently astronomers used the Suzaku orbiting X-ray observatory, operated jointly by NASA and the Japanese space agency, to discover the largest known reservoir of rare metals in the universe. Suzaku detected the elements chromium and manganese while observing the central region of the Perseus galaxy cluster. The metallic atoms are part of the hot gas, or "intergalactic medium," that lies between galaxies.

Thumbnail: "The Robot (3) 20102007 Inspired by Hajime Sorayama by Emile Noordeloos."

Exploding stars, or supernovas, forge the heavy elements. The supernovas also create vast outflows, called superwinds. These galactic gusts transport heavy elements into the intergalactic void.

More on this at the LINK: Youtube

Cold Sparks & Black Holes: Energy Scales of the Universe

This video explores the power scales of the universe. Climbing an energy ladder, it moves from the coldest and bleakest reaches of our galaxy on out to the hottest and most violent places known. The idea is to see, from another point of view, how and where Earth and humanity fits within the vast, timeless, and immensely powerful scales that define our universe. LINK: Youtube

Universe Painted in Light

In 1080p, enjoy the unusual visual style in this adaptation of the ground-breaking "Science on a Sphere" production, including depictions of Earth. From NASA and NOAA, with additional images from ESA Hubble.

We perceive light--we see it—but what we see and what it means are not the same. Without context, detail means nothing.

Oh, there are so many factors at play here: what wavelengths of light can we see, how well can our brains take what we see and turn it into something we understand?

And also, how do we compare ourselves to the thing we're observing? What tools do we use to help us capture information? How do we turn light into data, data into pixels, pixels into meaning? Start with a planet. LINK: Youtube

Cosmic Journeys / The Largest Black Holes in the Universe

We've never seen them directly, yet we know they are there, lurking within dense star clusters or wandering the dust lanes of the galaxy, where they prey on stars, or swallow planets whole. Our Milky Way may harbor millions of these black holes, the ultra dense remnants of dead stars. But now, in the universe far beyond our galaxy, there's evidence of something even more ominous: a breed of black holes that have reached incomprehensible size and destructive power. How big can they get? What's the largest so far detected? Where does an 18 billion solar mass black hole hide? LINK: Youtube

Prepare to Have Your Brain Exploded by This Known Universe Video

The Known Universe takes viewers from the Himalayas through our atmosphere and the inky black of space to the afterglow of the Big Bang. Every star, planet, and quasar seen in the film is possible because of the world's most complete four-dimensional map of the universe, the Digital Universe Atlas that is maintained and updated by astrophysicists at the American Museum of Natural History. The new film, created by the Museum, is part of an exhibition, Visions of the Cosmos: From the Milky Ocean to an Evolving Universe, at the Rubin Museum of Art in Manhattan through May 2010.

[Kottke], Via: Youtube

Strange World Delight: a Treatise on Parallel Universes

The idea of parallel universes has been one of the most celebrated stuffs of mythology, science fiction and fantasy for long eons of time. And it continues to fascinate both readers and writers across cultures and generations.

read more, Via: Webphemera

Overview Of The Universe

A time traveler in many novels is made to arrive at strange places – parallel universes. And more so often, a travel into the future or past entails the existence of extra dimensions apart from the three-dimensional space that we move through everyday. This other dimension that allows time travel is often equated by many writers as other universes existing independently with our own, albeit govern by different laws of physics. LINK

Geekiest Pieces of Furniture in the Universe

The goblins have been slain, the maidens have been won. Good job, Dungeon Master. Kick back, and set your fine drink upon a glass tray held obediently by your stone "Subservient Dragon."

If you're not into D&D, it also works great for displaying your Harry Potter books or He-Man action figures. LINK