Immersive digital waves to visualize nature

FLOW is an interactive art installation by Maotik that represents real-time weather data in the form of digital tides and waves that fill a room.

I used 11 parameters to define the ocean form, we connect ourselves to a database and retrieve data such as sea levels, tide coefficient, humidity, weather cast, wind force, wind direction, weather cast, moon cycle, location, time of the day. When parameters such as wind force or sea levels will affect the movement of the sea others such as weather cast or humidity will change the colors.

How do I install this in my garage?

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Visual collection of bird sounds

Different species of birds make different sounds. However, the sounds are so quick and compressed that it can be tough to pick out what is what. So Kyle McDonald, Manny Tan, and Yotam Mann created a “fingerprint” for each bird song and used machine learning to classify. Through the visual browser, you can play sounds and search for bird types. Similar sounds are closer to each other.

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Long-exposure bird flights

Bird flight

Using a long-exposure photography technique, Xavi Bou captured bird flight patterns in his series Ornitographies.

Unlike other motion analysis which preceded it, Ornitographies moves away from the scientific approach of chronophotography used by photographers like Eadweard Muybridge and Etienne-Jules Marey.

The approach used by Xavi Bou to portray the scene is not invasive; moreover, it rejects the distant study, resulting in organic form images that stimulate the imagination.

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Social network of Earth’s plants and animals

Plants and animals interact with each other to stay alive, which in turn forms complex systems. I think the Lion King covers the system simplistically in song-form at the beginning of the movie, but that doesn't cut it when trying to predict the effects of things like climate. Jianxi Gao, Baruch Barzel, and Albert-László Barabási study the complexities of nature's network in greater detail.

Mauro Martino helps explain the work in this video for Nature. [Thanks, Mauro]

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Day 1 of the #ChallengeOnNaturePhotography


OK - so after being nominated to join the fray by Gail Patricelli I am going to do the #ChallengeOnNaturePhotography. ...
Posted by Jonathan Eisen on Saturday, December 19, 2015

Way more trees than previously thought, new estimates show

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqdOkXQngw8

There are a lot of trees on this planet. But how many trees there actually are is still kind of fuzzy, because the estimates are based on satellite imagery. It's hard to gauge density. Research by T. W. Crowther et al., recently published in Nature, used on-the-ground sampling to estimate more accurately.

The global extent and distribution of forest trees is central to our understanding of the terrestrial biosphere. We provide the first spatially continuous map of forest tree density at a global scale. This map reveals that the global number of trees is approximately 3.04 trillion, an order of magnitude higher than the previous estimate. Of these trees, approximately 1.39 trillion exist in tropical and subtropical forests, with 0.74 trillion in boreal regions and 0.61 trillion in temperate regions.

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Flamingos standing and feeding in a pool near salt beds,…



Flamingos standing and feeding in a pool near salt beds, Netherlands Antilles. Photograph by Volkmar K. Wentzel, National Geographic Creative

A rainbow arches over Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe. Photograph by…



A rainbow arches over Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe. Photograph by Volkmar Wentzel, National Geographic Creative

Spring is the Season for Citizen Science

Here are six projects in need of your help as you walk the dog, work in your garden, clean the gutters, or do spring cleaning. And check out these  new citizen science projects just added to the Project Finder on … Continue reading »

The post Spring is the Season for Citizen Science appeared first on PLOS Blogs Network.

A twilight view of Victoria Falls on the Zambezi River in…



A twilight view of Victoria Falls on the Zambezi River in Zambia, 1996.Photograph by Chris Johns, National Geographic Creative