The Geographies of the Twin Planets Anarres and Urras of the Tau Ceti Star System: a Comprehensive Guide for the Ekumen Traveller

Four years. That’s how long I’ve been working on these maps. My first “commit” to the git-repository that set me on this journey, a tool for calculating and performing projections from one projection to another, was on December 31st 2012 [0], but I remember that I started working on the code in October or November. Any way — Four years! A lot can happen in four years. I’ve changed jobs twice, and am now working with maps as part of my work as a software developer. This is not something that I would have expected, but it is welcome, and I really do feel that what I’ve learned by mapping Tau Ceti has helped me with my work. Thinking about the balance of aesthetics and information content, the merits and drawbacks of different projections — these are important considerations for what I do today. I’m still an amateur in the field, but an amateur with some confidence built from experience, and who knows something of what questions to ask, even if I don’t have the answers. Four years is also the time that Dr Grijndvar has been away on an extended expedition across the Atlantic, but he returned safe and sound yesterday — welcome home, dear friend!

So what have I learnt, and what have I done all this time? Before getting to that, I would like to start with my usual advice to the reader, that this text is very long and mostly written for my own sake: should you wish to skip directly to the maps, then please do so – no hard feelings! I have also compiled a list of the tools I have used at the end of this article, which may be of interest to some – all are free (as in free speech) and open source, and available for anyone to download and use.

Read Full Post »

42³

A 42-cube, which reads 42 from three directions, a project I have wanted to realise for fifteen years, but until recently I thought it was impossible. Then I realised that given appropriate rotations combined with an appropriate font, it could be done.

This quick mockup was made using NumPy, SciPy and Mayavi. Ultimately, I would like to have it in physical form, but there remains some tweaking for that to be feasible.

Rotating 42-cube.

Read Full Post »

No Nobel prize winners this year (either)

Public Service Announcement:
It is that that time of the year again — the exciting start of the annual celebration of scientific achievements known as the Nobel prize. As usual, there is a confusion regarding the nomenclature, so I thought I would set the record straight: One does not win the Nobel Prize, one is awarded it. To quote from the FAQ of the NobelPrize.org homepage:

Why do you use the word Nobel Laureate and not Nobel Prize Winner?

Answer:
The awarding of the Nobel Prizes is not a competition or lottery, and therefore there are no winners or losers. Nobel Laureates receive the Nobel Prize in recognition of their achievements in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature, or peace.

Therefore there are no winners this year, nor have there been any in previous years. There are, however, some well-deserving laureates who deserve recognition for their work.

Three cheers for Science!

Read Full Post »

Minerals and Mysteries

My friends and I recently celebrated the (now international) Day of Geology by visiting an old pegmatite open-pit mine. That was great fun, and we found some nice specimens, including some Garnets (not to be confused with Grenades (sorry, that’s a Swedish pun… I couldn’t resist…)).

Deinonychus practising the Art of Science. Click to Animate! Copyright © Pica pica 2012. (CC: BY-NC-SA-2.5-SE)

Read Full Post »