The Technology Behind The 2014 World Cup [Infographic]
This infographic comes courtesy of the folks at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, whom we imagine know what they're talking about. Still curious about…
View ArticleIs America’s Wind Boom Over? [Infographic]
The production tax credit for renewable energy expired—most recently—at the end of 2013, and it’s unclear if Congress will renew it again. The program gives wind farms 2.3…
View ArticleThe Whole Brilliant Enterprise: NASA’s First 50 Years In One Interactive Graphic
NASA established its history program in 1959, the agency has periodically compiled the world’s aeronautics advances into a single report. Assembled mostly from press…
View ArticleHow The World Wastes Food [Infographic]
the planet loses nearly a third of its food—a staggering 1.4 billion tons. That’s according to a 2011 United Nations study that assessed food networks in 152 countries. The…
View ArticleCocktail Calculus Chart: The Inner Workings Of Recipes
Liquid Intelligence, a new book by (friend of Popular Science) Dave Arnold. The book is a canonical manual to a better way of understanding and making cocktails. "Think like…
View ArticleRunner Data-Logs Her Jogs To Draw Pictures On A Map
Visualizations don’t all have to be serious. They can be lighthearted—and a little subversive. Claire Wyckoff [NSFW] uses the Nike+ run-tracking tool as a data-illustration canvas: She turns it on,...
View ArticleDiabetic Charts A Year's Worth Of His Health Data
In 2012, Doug Kanter—diabetic since age 12—visualized his disease. He wrote software to compare his blood sugar with his activity and food. He says the feedback made for the healthiest year of his...
View ArticleFind A Sunset Spectacle On Almost Any New York City Street
Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson popularized the phenomenon of Manhattanhenge a decade ago, and now many New Yorkers stand in Manhattan’s cross streets twice a year to…
View ArticleInteractive Train Travel Time Map Makes A Small Country Smaller
In the Netherlands, ubiquitous trains make a small country even smaller. To illustrate that point, Vincent Meertens created TimeMaps, which portray distances as travel time rather than mileage....
View ArticleA 24-Hour Crisis Map Built From Hurricane Sandy Photos
Data collected by citizens and posted publicly can create a portrait of a city. This graphic, part of a larger multiuniversity collaboration called Phototrails, shows Instagram photos from Brooklyn,...
View ArticleYears Of Chinese Air Pollution Data Captured In Swirling Charts
Xiaoji Chen set out to find patterns in the air pollution that plagues Chinese cities. Using data from the country’s Ministry of Environmental Protection, she created spirals that reveal the annual...
View ArticleBerlin's Culture Shines In Heat Map Of Citygoer Activities
In a project he calls Stadtbilder—which translates to “city images”—Moritz Stefaner mapped the collective life of a city’s inhabitants, rather than its buildings or land. The…
View ArticleThe Geography Of Twitter Conversations
Eric Fischer makes maps to understand how people interact with each other and their environments—and there are few better windows into relationships than social media. In this map, he charted public...
View ArticleWorld Population Mapped As Peaks And Valleys
James Cheshire mapped the world’s population in a new way. Omitting any shorelines or country boundaries, he drew horizontal latitude lines that zigzag upward in black…
View ArticleEarth's Most Remote Locations Revealed In 'Lonely Planet' Cartogram
Cartograms—maps distorted so that instead of land area, they portray another quantity such as population or electoral-college votes—have existed since the early 1900s. Benjamin Hennig has refined the...
View ArticleInfographic: Which Elements Are Found In The Earth, Sun, Sea, And You
Quick, what elements make up the sea? This new animation makes it easy to answer.
View Article3-D Map Of Earth Shows Real-Time Weather
Like the planet itself, some data is constantly changing—so a static visualization will always be out-of-date. Cameron Beccario’s animated globe displays real-time data, at…
View ArticleDaily Mouse Usage Leads To Neuropathy, But Also Beautiful Graphs
Are your wrists at risk for carpal tunnel syndrome?
View ArticleThe Felton Annual Report: A Year's Worth Of Communication In One Chart
For nearly a decade, Nicholas Felton has been observing himself and using the information he collects to create a mock corporate annual report. In 2013, he tried to record and render all of his...
View ArticleYears Of Chinese Air Pollution Data Captured In Swirling Charts
Xiaoji Chen set out to find patterns in the air pollution that plagues Chinese cities. Using data from the country’s Ministry of Environmental Protection, she created spirals…
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