My new favourite thing

Photo credit: A 3D "Electrical Tree", or Lichtenberg figure inside a 1.5" cube of Polymethyl Methacrylate (PMMA). Created by Bert Hickman, Stoneridge Engineering, http://www.teslamania.com using a 3 MeV electron accelerator.

 This is my new favourite thing. Well, maybe not this exact particular one, but this and its companions are my new favourite things.


It's a Lichtenberg figure, and until today I never knew that such a thing existed. Amazing, really, for someone as pattern-obsessed as I can be. I've since learned a fair bit about them, but rather than me muddling about trying to explain it I'll let the experts over at Captured Lightning (who made the figure in the picture) tell you what it's all about. Go ahead, check it out. Just try to remember to hit your back button after, ok?






Ok, at least some of you are probably back by now. Pretty cool stuff, huh.


I want one.


I may want one badly enough to actually do something about it, now that I know the price of the smaller ones. Not nearly as expensive as I thought they'd be. And I'm such a sucker for fractals. I mean, what could be better for a pattern freak than a pattern that reiterates nearly infinitely, right?


Now for the weird part. I found out about Lichtenberg figures from a post on Fail Blog, of all places. They posted a photo taken from this blog of a Lichtenberg scar on a person who'd been struck by lightning. That's right, folks. If you're hit by lightning, you too could be wearing a fractal tree on your skin. Apparently, Lichtenberg figures also sometimes appear on ground that's been lightning-stuck.

Amazing.

Also amazing that I'd never heard of them before, as I said. I'm usually all over this kind of stuff.






And I want one, did I mention?

Just saying.