Found this pic over on hackernews. It's a Feyman Diagram of Feynman himself. It's wonderfully whimsical. Feyman Diagrams are pictures that describe calculations and mathematical expressions that govern the the behavior of subatomic particles.

I remember coming across "Surely you're joking, Mr. Feynman" when I was in college. What's not to like... there's wisdom, humor, and of course, brilliance.

Reading the books, listening to lectures, and watching his videos you'll notice a few themes including... be curious, be skeptical, and search for your own understanding.

Some quotes from the book

"I don't know what's the matter with people: they don't learn by understanding, they learn by some other way — by rote or something. Their knowledge is so fragile!"

"Since then I never pay attention to anything by "experts". I calculate everything myself."

George Whitesides: A lab the size of a postage stamp...

It this TEDx talk, George Whitesides walks us through a few simple paper based technologies that could potentially be used to diagnose disease using blood samples. There's a color laser printer that can produce up to 10 million strips. This can be a game changer for sure. He also discusses the use of egg beater as a cheap centrifuge for separating blood cells from serum, and a $50 light wave device with the power of a $100,000 machine.

So what do we focus on to engineer low cost solutions to profoundly complex problems? Answer: Simplicity

But what is Simplicity? George reminds us that we all know what it is, but not what it means... After some work with a group of brilliant folks they stumbled upon the following definition.

Simplicity: "It's impossible to f..k it up"

The soft blue spheres and split clouds are the electron orbital clouds of the carbon atom as predicted by quantum mechanics.

Checkout the Slideshow http://www.tgdaily.com/slideshows/index.php?s=200909101&p=1

What is it about graphics, pictures, and animation that creates meaning? Tom Wujec talks about 3 ways the brain creates meaning.

Quick Summary:

How does the brain create meaning? Begining with the eyes, thirty or so centers of the brain work in parallel to produce "aha" moments that come together to create a unified mental model.

We make meaning by an act of visual interrogation.

3 things you should do:
1. Use Images to Clarify Ideas
2. Interact with images to Create Engagement (touch screens,whiteboards etc)
3. Augment Memory with Persistent & Evolving Views

Example:

At AutoDesk, team draws entire strategic plan on one giant wall. The team creates a shared mental model that they can share.

Top 50 threads in the news cycle with highest volume for the period Aug. 1 to Oct. 31, 2008. The total number of posts was constant through the period; peaks represent stories that took up the largest proportion of all posts at a given time. (Credit: Kleinberg group)

"As more and more news appears on the Internet as well as in print, it becomes possible to map the global flow of news by observing it online. Using this strategy, Cornell computer scientists have managed to track and analyze the "news cycle" -- the way stories rise and fall in popularity."

Read "A New Model for Digital Publishing ... From an Academic Journal?" on Advertising Age. (article)

Scitable is Social Network meets Wikipedia. A "trusted" alternative to Wikipedia for Science. Scitable also has guided lessons called "Learning Paths".

I suppose this really needed to be scientifically proven. On another note, I wonder what impact the choice of song (Robbie Williams "Let Me Entertain You") had on the results of the study. My conclusion, if you can't dance, then never, under any circumstances, dance to this song in front of women.

Late last year, researchers in England published a study purporting to establish a link between creative output and number of sexual partners.

Einstein, Feynman, Schrodinger, and Oppenheimer are just a few named in this article. I have no comment, just passing along some important information.