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A project by the Italian chemistry student and photographer Emanuele Fornasier, Crystal Birth features close-up time-lapse photography of electrocrystallisation, a process in which an electrical current running through a chemical solution results in the gradual buildup of metal on an electrode. By carrying out this process over hours or days, depending on the chemicals present in the reaction, Fornasier is able to capture crystals piling on beautifully, layer by layer, in a remarkable synthesis of science and art.
Via Colossal.
Director: Emanuele Fornasier
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Animals and humans
Why be dragons? How massive, reptilian beasts entered our collective imagination
58 minutes
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Rituals and celebrations
Flirtation, negotiation and vodka – or how to couple up in 1950s rural Poland
5 minutes
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Biology
How the world’s richest reds are derived from an innocuous Mexican insect
5 minutes
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Physics
The abyss at the edge of human understanding – a voyage into a black hole
4 minutes
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Stories and literature
Robert Frost’s poetic reflection on youth, as read in his unforgettable baritone
5 minutes
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Film and visual culture
‘Bags here are rarely innocent’ – how filmmakers work around censorship in Iran
8 minutes
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Language and linguistics
Closed captions suck. Here’s one artist’s inventive project to make them better
8 minutes
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Architecture
The celebrated architect who took inspiration from sitting, waiting and contemplating
29 minutes
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Subcultures
Drop into London’s eclectic skate scene, where newbies and old-timers find community
5 minutes