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First discovered by the Italian mathematician Giuseppe Peano in 1890, a space-filling curve can theoretically expand endlessly without its path ever crossing itself to fill an infinite space. In a computer display, space-filling curves are limited by the number of pixels on a screen, but watching these fractal constructions extend isn’t just hypnotic – it’s also a helpful (if somewhat imperfect) demonstration of the enigmatic concept of infinity. To learn more about the mathematics of space-filling curves, watch Hilbert’s Curve, and the Usefulness of Infinite Results in a Finite World, also by 3Blue1Brown.
Video by 3Blue1Brown
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Language and linguistics
Why Susan listens to recordings of herself speaking a language she no longer remembers
5 minutes
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Ethics
Plato saw little value in privacy. How do his ideas hold up in the information age?
5 minutes
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Biology
Starlings swoosh like brushstrokes across the sky in this dazzling short
3 minutes
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Information and communication
‘Astonished and somewhat terrified’ – Victorians’ reactions to the phonograph
36 minutes
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Engineering
From simple motors to levitating trains – how design shapes innovation
23 minutes
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Animals and humans
Are zoos and natural history museums born of a desire to understand, or to control?
57 minutes
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Archaeology
What’s an ancient Greek brick doing in a Sumerian city? An archeological investigation
16 minutes
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Family life
The migrants missing in Mexico, and the mothers who won’t stop searching for them
21 minutes
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Ecology and environmental sciences
The tree frog die-off that sparked a global mystery – and revealed a dark truth
15 minutes