(via Glenn Van Hoof)

The American Museum of Natural History has made this very cool video as a part of their exhibition " Visions of the Cosmos: From the Milky Ocean to an Evolving Universe".

The Known Universe takes viewers from the Himalayas through our atmosphere and the inky black of space to the afterglow of the Big Bang. Every star, planet, and quasar seen in the film is possible because of the world's most complete four-dimensional map of the universe, the Digital Universe Atlas that is maintained and updated by astrophysicists at the American Museum of Natural History.

Just watch it and be utterly amazed!

I went to the Media140 event yesterday and the speaker that amazed me the most was David McCandless. You may know him from the occasional viral that hits your inbox or Twitterstream such as Porn For Girls By Girls. David is genuinely not interested in making money, but only wants to create, share and see if his creations are picked up.

During his presentation, David made a strong point by stating the importance of visualizing data to understand it. He stressed that data is beautiful and when presented in such manner it has the power of making people really think through what these figures mean. The whole audience was amazed when presented these charts on a big screen. I'll share some of his work here and please check out his website if you're hungry for more!