fractal

Slime mold a muse for science-minded designers

Looking for a gift for that science-minded someone (or your science-minded self)?

MIT alums Jesse Louis-Rosenberg and Jessica Rosenkrantz (aka design studio Nervous System) recently announced a new line of jewelry -- "Ammonite" -- inspired by patterns found on the fossilized shells of ammonites, ancient relatives of the octopus.

Rosenkrantz, who studied biology and architecture, and Louis-Rosenberg, who studied mathematics, say they used "a simulation of dendritic solidification to make suture-like patterns" for the pieces. Wikipedia helpfully adds that "when materials crystallize or solidify under certain conditions, they freeze unstably, resulting in dendritic forms."

And Crave even more helpfully chimes in that the supertechnical translation of "dendritic forms" is "very-cool-looking fractally patterns which -- when worn on your wrists, earlobes, or around your neck -- will make you the envy of everyone at the Science Nerds Ball."… Read more

Create Julia Set fractals with JuliaShapes

Julia Sets are specific kinds of fractals that are of interest in some pretty complex mathematics. Named for their creator, French mathematician Gaston Julia, JuliaShapes is a free tool that generates Julia Sets using quaternion numbers, which can be represented as pairs of complex numbers and so are ideal for fractals. The math is complex but the tool is simple, with sliders for adjusting the fractal's parameters and high-quality rendering via anti-aliasing.

You can open multiple instances of JuliaShapes' simple, compact interface. Aside from sliders tweaking the View, Render, Julia settings, Light settings, and Generalised settings, the only buttons … Read more

Google shows off Web-based fractal explorer

There was a day when exploring that famed fractal, the Mandelbrot set, took a supercomputer. Now Google has created a Web application that--while not the highest-performing or most subtly-shaded rendering of this surreal mathematical landscape--shows the browser can now outdo the supercomputers of yore.

The Julia Map project uses a newer Web standard called Web Workers that lets the browser perform background processing tasks in parallel with the more ordinary user-interface chore in the forefront of a browser's thoughts, so to speak.

The Mandelbrot set is a close relative of another fractal called the Julia set; Google's application … Read more

Fractal fun

GNU XaoS 3.5 is a free, open source fractal generator and "zoomer" that offers smooth, fluid navigational movement as you zoom in or out of a fractal. It includes 24 well-known fractal formulas with many possible variations in effects and appearance, but you can also use it to generate your own fractals. It offers effects like a starfield generator, embossing, motion blur, pseudo 3D mode, and even a text display.

The program's 32-bit installation executable includes the 64-bit version for recent editions of Windows like Vista and 7, both of which we used for testing. The … Read more

Not a "baaaaad" screensaver

Electric Sheep is a free screensaver that lets your computer join a global network of computers processing "electric sheep"--striking, ever-changing, abstract fractal animations generated with a genetic algorithm (taking their name from the novel "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" by Philip K. Dick).

Your computer downloads and displays sheep from the current "flock" as your screensaver, while running in the background, your CPU contributes to the parallel computation and mutation of new sheep, joining thousands of other computers around the world. You can also vote on sheep with your up and down … Read more

Fractal flair

We all know what fractals are, even if we can't explain them very well (myself included). In simplest terms, fractals are geometric shapes that can be split into increasingly smaller, yet identical, fragments.

In 2002, Scott Draves created something called "fractal flares," which are a class of fractals that use nonlinear transformations and color in a way to create spectacular images. His work was put into a free, open-source fractal-flame called Apophysis.

I've been playing a bit with Apophysis this week, and be warned: once you get started, you may find yourself spending hours creating increasingly … Read more

Instant shmup classics from Cactus

For those of you who are big fans of Warning Forever, I've got an awesome treat for you. In fact, I have two truly awesome treats for you. Swedish game developer Jonatan Söderström (otherwise known as "Cactus" on Shmup Dev) has created two of the most addictive free shooters I've seen this side of Kenta Cho.… Read more