Lots of cool scientific & technical imaging has popped up recently:
- Photoshop’s Twirl filter is no longer a bastion for Internet creeps: The NY Times shares some (but not all) details of how Interpol was able to reverse the common image distortion. Now they’re seeking the public’s help in catching the guy. [Via Leon Brown] (Through some weird cosmic alignment of forces, Google Alerts happened to pop up a tutorial on digitally obscuring faces at just the same time.)
- Photoshop & fish tales: digital imaging & sport fishing don’t go hand in hand, according to BountyFishing.com. The NYT has more info on how these folks worked with Prof. Hany Farid (see previous) to detect misrepresentations. [Via Rob Corell]
- Edited by documentary filmmaker Claire Nouvian, The Deep "features more than 200 photos of the insanely strange and beautiful denizens of our oceans." Smithsonian.com features a small gallery of the images, plus an article covering the project.
- Nikon’s Small World competition has been honoring terrific microscopic photography for more than 30 years. Check out a gallery of this year’s winners. [Via]
- It’s fun to compare these modern depictions of the natural world against Arcana Entomologica and the Handbook of Animal Anatomy, both courtesy of BibliOdyssey.
- Elsewhere in the world of archaic technical materials, the National Institutes of Health have posted high-res scans of public domain anatomical atlases. I used to love incorporating stuff like this into my designs. (Thanks, dead artists of antiquity!) [Via]
- Science Magazine has announced their 2007 visualization challenge winners.
- NASA’s Cassini probe is sending back detailed pictures of Saturn’s moons.
- One other NASA note: the International Space Station site picked up a 2007 MAX Award from Adobe. The site features 360-degree views of the inside of several space station modules, and the first update is due to go live tomorrow.
They got him! The Twirl guy got caught. Police in Thailand arrested Canadian Christopher N. after some of his victims identified him by the pictures untwirled with the help of the german Bundeskriminalamt. Ha, I never expected Photoshop hacks at the BKA.