ButterflyEffect
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Researchers can predict bad weather up to a month in advance
Climate change means that it's no longer certain that the tailgate you've planned for the third weekend in August will have clear skies and sunshine. Fortunately, a group of Chinese researchers think that they've developed a system that'll predict catastrophic weather events from anything up to 30 days in advance. That's a big deal, since the traditional limit for making an educated guess about an impending monsoon was less than half that. The paper, published in Advances in Atmospheric Sciences, reports that the team has managed to overcome a key principle of chaos theory that's long held-back such research: the Butterfly Effect.
Robotic vines illustrate chaos theory and the Butterfly Effect
We've seen capacitive-touch-enabled plants before, but the robotic vines and leaves of Branching Systems are something altogether different. And, perhaps craziest of all, they respond to your presence. The leaves react to your inputs, and then nearby leaves react to those reactions and so on. Creator's Project writes that your movements are the "catalysts that trigger the swift-paced and divergent" motions from artist Robert Wolfe's installation. You see, the idea is to illustrate chaos theory and the Butterfly Effect: small changes that can have massive impacts on others. Want to peep it for yourself and inspect the vines for any robotic insects? The exhibit is on display in Santa Fe, New Mexico as part of this year's Currents New Media Festival and you can check out a video tour just below.
