The Drake Equation
Start with every star in the galaxy, then let each factor of the Drake Equation knock the number down — from 200 billion to ~20 (or 1, or millions).
Animated data charts about technology, engineering, and the world — made to stop the scroll. New chart every week.
Start with every star in the galaxy, then let each factor of the Drake Equation knock the number down — from 200 billion to ~20 (or 1, or millions).
Earth's spin, its orbit, the Sun around the galaxy, the galaxy through space — stacked up, then resolved into your real speed, measured from the Big Bang's afterglow.
From a scuba diver to the Mariana Trench floor at 10,935 m — deeper than Everest is tall. Only four craft have ever touched the bottom.
Sirius, Lalande 21185, Wolf 359, Barnard's Star, Alpha Centauri — a tour of our cosmic neighbourhood, all within 9 light-years.
Every planet on its real orbit, at true relative speed. Great conjunctions, a planet parade, comet flybys, and the Voyager routes traced across the decades.
Self-replicating probes spread across the galaxy. Even slow ones could fill the Milky Way in a cosmic blink — so where is everybody?
Vinyl → 8-track → cassette → CD → downloads → streaming. The CD peak, the long collapse, and the streaming comeback that rebuilt the industry.
DNA sequencing cost vs Moore's Law. They fell together for years — then in 2008 sequencing went into free-fall and left the microchip behind.
Everything that happens online in a single minute, with live counters — brand icons racing a circuit-board maze from everyone to the internet.
Camera, camcorder, MP3 player, GPS, calculator — the devices the smartphone ate, shot down arcade-style in the year each one died.
From zero known exoplanets to over 5,000 in three decades. The Kepler telescope explosion, by detection method, over a starfield.
From Sputnik to Starlink. The chart that started it all — 14,300 views on Instagram. The Starlink explosion at the end is jaw-dropping.
Intel dominates for 30 years. Samsung challenges. TSMC rises. Then Nvidia explodes past everyone with AI. The chip that changed everything.
Sailing ships, steamers, flying boats, Concorde — and the twist: we got slower when Concorde retired in 2003.
Builds steadily for 30 years, then Chernobyl hits. Then Fukushima. Germany closes its last reactor in 2023. China keeps climbing.
Both growing at Moore's Law rates for 30 years. Your iPhone is faster than the 1999 world-record supercomputer.
Average new-car horsepower has doubled since 1980. 0–60 time has halved — and fuel economy improved at the same time.
Tesla dominates, then BYD overtakes them. The Hongguang Mini EV appears from nowhere. Fisker rises and vanishes.
A data correction, a sponsorship, or a chart idea you'd love to see? Drop us a line.