This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American
I love when I find a nerdy or scientific gif I can share on social media, because these capture people's attention right away and share a message or sentiment in a compact form that amuses, fascinates and delights! Facebook does not support the playing of gifs and twitter does not show images immediately, but Google Plus allows the sharing of active gifs and this is where I find the most immediate response from the audience. These gifs go viral once enough +1s, shares, and comments accumulate after which the images will be found on the "What's Hot" list and then the numbers grow rapidly once there.
Here is one I found quite amusing. It's been around since the summer of 2011, but if you'd never seen it before, it is fresh and fun, especially if you are a fan of the original Star Trek Series:
There is some psychology here that makes me want to watch to see who finally wins, even though I know it is merely a continuous loop!
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The other day, during a break at a special gathering of some of the top thinkers in education and education technology the internet has to offer, hosted by Discovery Education (the education arm of the Discovery Channel) at their campus in Silver Spring, MD, I came across a fascinating gif on Google Plus, originally posted by Panah Rad, which was created from this original video and shared it with my audience.
This gif shows a rare earth neodymium magnet being consumed by a putty full of iron particles (a thick ferrofluid of sorts) and is a bit deceptive in that the time it takes for consumption, which looks rapid here, is actually a timelapse of a process that took nearly 90 minutes! This image quickly went to the What's Hot list and as of yesterday, had over 2500 +1s and over 1200 shares.
I've been asked "Where can I get this stuff?!" many times. It can be found at Amazon and also at Vat19. Vat19 have created a great video of what these objects can do together!
Follow me on Google Plus if you enjoy these sorts of gifs and, once there, feel free to ask me about great circles to share to satisfy your need for science!