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No. 33: Arsenic, from the Chemsoc Visual Elements |
The Visual Elements Periodic Table
A slick, stylish site which fuses art with chemistry. The site can be viewed via HTML, but is much more exciting if you can use Flash (available to download through the site) the entire periodic table of the elements is rendered with individual graphic designs which relate to their uses or their histories. Click on an element and a thumbnail sketch appears alongside a large-scale version of the design. This gives a brief layman’s description of the substance, and explains where and when it was discovered. More complex information relating to an element’s properties is available just one click further.
With so many dry, unimaginative science resources on the web, this really stands out. It is visually arresting and imaginatively conceived, with great artwork for some of the elements (look at mercury and americium, for example). The site serves as both an accessible introduction for the beginner and a handy resource for the professional if you wanted to know the key isotopes for vanadium, here is where to come. There are even animations for some of the elements, and the images are available as original prints, wallcharts and mousemats.
theory.org.uk
“Social theory for fans of popular culture: popular culture for fans of social theoryTM” It is fitting that a site dedicated to popular cultural theory should be fresh and irreverent. This one is the brainchild of David Gauntlett at Leeds University, who has produced a highly original resource for anyone with an interest in media studies and critical theory. Among the highlights is a LEGO figure of Michel Foucault and a series of free downloadable trading cards featuring favourite cultural theorists. The ‘Top Trumps’-style trading cards have apparently become cult items, with fans now designing their own and make them available online. One visitor to the site describes them as being “like ‘cliff notes’ for the attention deficit disorder jet set.”
Beyond these attention-grabbing innovations, theory.org.uk is also a comprehensive and regularly updated directory of links to important resources. The site is beautifully realised and easy to navigate around, with entertaining hints and explanations given where necessary. Highly recommended.
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Rik Lander’s interactive Magic Tree |
The Magic Tree
Commissioned by The Laboratory at the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art, The Magic Tree was created by video-artist Rik Lander. It is an unusual, highly involving piece of interactive narrative which demands time spent unravelling the story, and cannot be lightly dipped into. The concept is that you are in a book store when an unusual box catches your eye, and the decisions you make thereafter decide the course of the story. The narrative can safely be described as post-modern, and plays heavily on the relationship between the viewer and the screen, attempting to lure the viewer away from their detached perspective.
The Magic Tree is worth the hour or so it requires to fully explore, and boasts enough clever ideas to make it one of the most original sites on the web.
Student Free Stuff
This is surely the quintessential stereotypical student site, centred around a ready-compiled list of freebies on offer via the internet. You can investigate the possibilities of anything from a free bread recipe book to free life insurance, besides plenty of other cheap offers and student competitions. The menu links directly to the external sites offering the products, with little in the way of independent explanation, so users are warned to read the small print carefully. Other features on the site include free web-hosting, email and text messaging, plus links to sites which list drinking games and an ‘Ali-G translator.’ If there are any student clichés not represented on this site then I couldn’t find them, which is either a triumph or a travesty, depending on your point of view.
If you have a website you would like us to review, drop us a line at editor@hero.ac.uk |
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