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things made thinkable

Innovative visualizations of information and ideas, designed to engage the mind as well as the eye. Don't just see things differently, think things differently.

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Rivers of the Atlantic

Most maps show rivers as squiggly flows over continents; this one flips the narrative, showing rivers as simplified flows into The Atlantic Ocean

Planets

This isn't just one way to visualize the planets. This is every way to visualize the planets: use the controls to arrange Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus & Neptune by where they are, how heavy they are, how big they are, how dense they are, how hot they are, or any of a dozen other measures in thousands of combinations

Startup Hubs

What's the best place in the world to start your next billion-dollar tech company? Here's a visualization of the top 30 startup ecosystems

Rivers of the Pacific

Most maps show rivers as squiggly flows over continents; this one flips the narrative, showing rivers as simplified flows into The Pacific Ocean

Is COVID-19 getting better or worse?

Is COVID-19 getting better or worse in your part of the world? This crucial information is impossible to glean from most COVID-19 charts; here's a chart that aims to make it clear

Earth Elevation - cross-sections along meridians

The highest mountain ranges and the deepest oceanic trenches: animation showing cross-sections through the continents and the oceans along circles of longitude

Earth Elevation - cross-sections along parallels

How high are the mountains? How deep is the sea? Animation showing cross-sections through the continents and the oceans along circles of latitude from the North Pole through the Equator to the South Pole

How far can you travel for $10?

Think transit is cheap? Think again! $10 will get you four times further in your car than on transit

Regulation Will Kill the Web

Exploration of how misguided regulations such as GDPR and PIPEDA are slowly strangling the web

The World in 49 Weird City Maps

These 49 weird maps show the shorelines around some of the world's most interesting coastal cities expanded in exquisite detail

How We Die - Part II

What's most likely to kill you at your age? Which causes of death would have been more lethal to you when you were 10 years younger? What about when you're 20 years older? How, ultimately, might you die?

What's the most remarkable day of the week?

Sunday is the most remarkable day of the week, and Tuesday, to put it politely, is the least remarkable

How We Die - Part I

How likely are we to die as infants? as teenagers? in our twenties, thirties, forties and fifties? in old age? What's most likely to kill us at each of these times of our lives? accidents? suicide? cancer? How, ultimately, do we die?

Words on Wikipedia

What are the top 10 words on Wikipedia? How many times does the word 'word' appear? Which 13-letter word is used 4 times more often than any other? Which of the words 'who', 'when', 'where', 'what' and 'why' is seen most frequently?

Canadian Highways Transit Map

Most road maps are complicated... this one makes Canadian highways as simple as a rail network

How many people for every panda?

How many people are there in the world for every panda? How many fish for every bird? How many ants for every krill? How many ducks for every elephant?

Real World Colour Wheels

Forget about abstract theories of colour... these colour wheels are based on the real colours of real things in the real world

If Taxes Were Simple...

Exploration of how different things would be if taxes were simple

Inorganic Molecules

Representation of 451 inorganic compounds showing how positive and negative ions combine to form simple molecules

1-Dimensional Countries

Topological maps showing that some countries are more 1-dimensional than they seem

Memories of Weather

Visualization of weather suggesting that memories may not be objective, but they reflect our true experiences of the climate

At what age do we do our greatest work?

Chart of how old the greatest achievers of all time were at the times of their greatest achievements, challenging the conventional wisdom that you're past it before you're even in your thirties

Fields of Knowledge

Zoomable map of the fields of human knowledge showing the breadth and depth of what we know

Antarctic Exploration Timeline

Animated map showing how Antarctica was explored and settled by adventurers, imperialists and scientists over the course of a century

Atoms

Representation of 118 elements, allowing you to create your own charts of atoms, from traditional periodic tables to plots comparing the abundance of the elements in the Earth and the sea

If Patents Were Abolished...

Comparison of life with and without patents, arguing that if they were abolished, innovation would thrive

Nuclides

Representation of 3137 nuclides, the bundles of protons and neutrons that make up most of what we think of as matter

Dishonesty Doesn't Pay

Chart showing that dishonest jobs pay no more than honest jobs

Forbidden Words

List of one-word trademarks, showing that words we've spoken for hundreds or thousands of years are being stolen from us

National Stereotypes in a word

World map of national stereotypes, showing that Americans are ignorant, Germans are unfunny and Iranians are beautiful... or so they say

One and a Half Day Work Week

Demonstration that if we wanted to, we could work just one and a half days a week, and enjoy five and a half days of freedom

Top Ten Cities Through History

Animation of the most populous ten cities in the world, revealing some fascinating broad sweeps of history

If Advertising Were Abolished...

Comparison of life with and without advertising, showing that if it were abolished, the world would not come to an end

Commercials Consume Lives

Comparison of the astonishing 140,000 hours you'll spend watching television commercials in your life with other ways you might spend the time

Baryons

Representation of 150 baryons and antibaryons, showing neutrons, protons and some of their weirder cousins

Mesons

Representation of 52 mesons, some of the weirder particles in the universe

Elementary Particles

Representation of 31 elementary particles, showing what things are really made of

What Do We All Provide?

Visualization of the workforce as 147 people, showing what we're all working towards every day

What Do We All Do?

Visualization of the workforce as 147 people, showing some surprising truths about what we all do

How Big Is Your God?

Popularity poll of deities, showing that the world is decidedly divided as to the nature of the divine

Hundred Million Person Tribes

Map of the world population split into equal chunks, allowing comparisons between regions at a glance

Trillion Dollar Economies

Map of the world economy split into equal chunks, allowing comparisons between regions at a glance