Big Bang infographic

Omid Kashan created this lovely and immersive Big Bang Timeline infographic. (Thanks, Ariel Waldman!)

David Pescovitz is Boing Boing's co-editor/managing partner. He's also a research director at Institute for the Future. On Instagram, he's @pesco.

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http://nefariousnewt.blogspot.com NefariousNewt

“Luke, you’ve switched off your targeting computer…”
http://twitter.com/Martijnvs Martijn

Oh dear. I feel like an extraspecial geek. I read ‘Big Bang Theory Timeline’. Oops…
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=708802329 Melissa Jeffrey

i’m such a not-geek that I don’t understand most of it… but i’m enough of one to wish i did
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001349894171 Hans Henninger

This infographic was clearly made for people with a strong background in the sciences. ie, not me.
- http://www.theblacklaser.net/ Joe The Wizard
  
  Hahah, totally. I have almost no idea what the hell I’m looking at even though I find it quite visually appealing.
- clairepants
  
  Unfortunately having a strong background in the sciences doesn’t make this infographic any easier to figure out! I’m graduating with a masters in astrophysics in December and have studied the big bang/early universe in depth and I have no idea what’s going on!
  
  It looks like it could be really cool, but I can only view an 8th of
  it at a time on my screen so I can’t figure out how it works. Does time
  go around in a circle like a clock? Why are there different rings
  (each with a different time scale?), do you move down (or up?) to the
  next ring when you finish one?
Mona Morgan

I need an big red dot that says, “You are here”.
Bersl

Interesting attempt, but it’s so busy.
- http://twitter.com/bigbadchang Chang Terhune
  
  Dude, Bersl! So’s the universe!!! You try t’ make that shit in 7 days!!!
  - Just_Ok
    
    Six. Six days. Before the deadline, and probably under budget too. He started with nothing.
http://grumer.org/ Avram Grumer

I’ve got a weird urge to ask it to open up the pod bay doors.
http://twitter.com/bigbadchang Chang Terhune

Whoa. Very cool!!!

I can’t help but wonder if this would make Edward Tufte’s head assplode. It’s making mine go nuts. I may need to make my own big poster of this.
- Guest
  
  That’s what I’m going to do, too. Should we donate money or pay something, somewhere…? I’m gonna print this BIG… :D
Rich Keller

Pretty colors.

I found the Emergence of Life on Earth -4.5 BYA and Life on Earth -3.7 BYA a little confusing. Then again, the rest of it is a little confusing.

Thinking about heat death always makes me a little sad.
http://twitter.com/drewwill Drew Williams

So this basically says the universe is half-dead already.
daen

I’m unclear what the inner set of rings is, and what the shading actually represents … but it’s still a “wow” graphic.
Just_Ok

trying to find on the time line where Sheldon meets WHEATON!!!!
- Guest
  
  Wouldn’t it be Sheldon meeting Wesley? lol …or Parsons meeting Wheaton? Or Jim meeting Wil? Cooper meeting Crusher?! XD
awjt

hard to use.
http://burntheflag.ca Jardine

I am not a za’tarc!
daev

There’s a lot of confusion in the timelines… “emergence of life on earth” at 4.5 BYA, and it seems to lose all coherence on the right hand side of the graphic. Still trying to figure out what I’m missing (other than the joke…), like why the two rings are connected around the 2oclock area…
Rob Knop

I’m with clairepants — I’ve already got my PhD, and I worked in cosmology for several years and regularly give public outreach talks on the topics. I can’t figure out what a lot of the stuff on this graphic is suppsoed to be. I have the same problem that I can’t view much of it on my screen at once. But, a lot of the lines, rings, and so forth… it’s not clear at all what they’re supposed to represent.

I was able to figure out some of it, and I’m sure there’s a lot of information there, but it’s quite opaque. At the very least, this thing requires an extensive figure caption to help you figure out what all the various visualizations mean.
Joshua Walker

For those of you wondering, this infograph looks cool, but is complete garbage presentation wise.

1. It’s legend is absolute shit, and tells you nothing about what anything means. As far as I can see, the right side is just filled with doodles and cute moon phases. Also, the very little words that are there, are irrelevant to marking out time, and inconsistent with itself. What does “retrograde motion” have anything to do with “1 planetary day”

2. When you plot things on a polar map, you need to define the zero-degree axis. This is normally on the 12:00 position, going clockwise for representing time. If you want to be fancy, (and mathematically correct), use the 3:00 position and go counterclockwise. The only relevant point I saw was the big bang/heat death event which sat at, of all places, 225 degrees(?)

3. If you are going to make your graph logarithmic, make it look logarithmic. Do not space the marks at an equal distance apart. That is the absolute opposite of of what “logarithmic” means.

4. There are so many numbers with absolutely no reference to units of measurement.

5. Those colored bars that go around? Those mean absolutely nothing, Well, they may mean something, but if your legend is crap they might as well mean nothing.

This poster is the work of an artist who completely and utterly fails at communication. Looking at it frustrates me so much I’m almost tempted to make one myself just to show how you are supposed to do it.
Mister44

My God – it’s full of stars…
laundryshark

IIAC (I am a cosmologist), and I’ve got to agree with the other comments.

In short, I don’t get it. It contains may words that are interesting, but that’s not nearly enough to make a graphic into an infographic.
http://www.facebook.com/sirkowski Sirkowski Sébastien Fréchette

I understand the words (mostly), but not the graphics.
http://twitter.com/doppeltim doppeltim

i want this a a shirt.
http://okul8.com Omid

Hello, thanks to everyone who’s said they like this, it means a lot. Especially to the people who’ve emailed asking for prints – they’ll be here soon. :)

I know theres a couple of people who’ve disagreed and said they’re not fans and that’s fine – each to their own and all that! Having spent so much time poring over it I’ve got to know it inside out so for anyone who’s having a hard time deciphering it, I apologise! I’m in two minds as to whether to actually post a breakdown of it though because as quite a few people have said, the element of working it out for yourself is half the fun…
Howard Dickins

That is totally Airwolf.