Link: How Big Are We? (Updated 8/29/06)

Here are a series of pictures that show the relative sizes of our local planets and stars. If you’ve ever considered yourself an infinitesimal dot in a vast universe, this will give you some small idea how right you are! Keep in mind when viewing the images that you’re seeing only objects from our local galactic neighborhood, and that it would be even more mind-blowing if we included some sense of relative distances!

Update 8/29/06: Here is another page with the same theme, but limited to the solar system. There are three wonderful photographs, and some thoughtful writing and reader comments as well.

Link: The lowly pencil and Quantum Mechanics. It doesn’t even have to be a mechanical pencil!

Science Now is reporting in “Black Hole in a Pencil,” that, in 1- or 2-atom thick layers, graphite has a unique ability: electrons within the thin graphite (called graphene) act as if they are massless, and move freely within it at the speed of light. But wait, there’s more!

(Image Credit: Chris Ewels)