Discover
Technology has a habit of hiding interesting ideas in plain sight. Here are a few worth a closer look.
26 stories to explore
A coastline that grows when you look closer
The Koch curve turns a question about measuring length into a question about the scale of the ruler.
The slow pulse hidden between two notes
Two nearby frequencies can make one mixture swell and fade, without adding a new low-frequency tone to its spectrum.
When adding sound makes less sound
Two waves can cancel at one place. Keeping them cancelled is the difficult part.
Three colours pretending to be millions
A screen builds a rich picture from three adjustable channels, with some important limits.
The invisible direction inside light
Rotating a filter changes what passes through, even when the scene itself stays still.
Why a wheel can appear to turn backwards
A camera records positions. The motion between them remains a question.
The detail a brighter photo cannot bring back
When different highlights become the same stored value, darkening the picture cannot separate them.
An island made without drawing a coastline
A few scales of variation and a sea-level threshold can turn numbers into a place-like shape.
How a 3D object starts looking like a comic
Replace a smooth lighting gradient with a few chosen tones, and the surface tells a different visual story.