Mac OS X Quantum Simulations

Jeremy Lee writes "There are some 'educational' apps that transcend the merely interesting, and expand you mind with the force of a crowbar in the cerebellum. Celestia is one. Atom in a box is another. I keep it handy on my new iBook to blow the minds of chemist friends. It only runs on PowerPC Macs, but it's almost a justification for getting one. It should be used in schools to teach chemistry." Celestia is also great (and available for other platforms) ... I couldn't download it from the main link on the page, but was able to get it from SF.net. But if you really want to amaze your friends, turn your Mac into a Desktop Cray.

Comments

Re:Celestia

[Igor47]

celestia works perfectly fine in windows, too. haven't tried the *nix version, but its there. everyone needs to download this. its amazing!!!

Caution warranted?

[Anonymous Coward]

Perhaps coincidence, but after trying Desktop Cray and Celestia (in that order) got my very first kernel panic... I've been running OS X since 10.0 and have never had one 'til now.

did you....R E A D M E

[djupedal]

What part of 'Alpha software' (Celestia) was overlooked during your tests? You do know you're testing, right?

"This is a preliminary version of Celestia 1.2.5 for MacOS X. Use it at your own risk!"

So far, neither has acted foul for me. Knock on wood. I think the 1gb RAM I've got onboard helps :)

Re:ohhh Sneakers!

[kalidasa]

ASTRONOMERS, not astrologists. An "astrologist" is, like an astrologer (the more usual form), someone who believes in horoscopes.

Re:Mind-bending visual bug

[kalidasa]

That's because your vid card can't handle the hi-res Earth. My iBook does the same thing if I have the settings wrong. Change the settings on Celestia for lower res and the earth should reappear.

Re:Desktop Cray?

[Anonymous Coward]

The app is a hoax. http://www.macmerc.com/article.php?sid=536

Re:Celestia on Debian?

[Teancom]

It wants to install the new libfam0c102 (g++ 3.2.2), which conflicts with your existing libfam, compiled with 2.95.3. Wait a couple more days, and 3.1 will finish being transitioned into sid (kdelibs, kdebase, arts, and qt are all there already). Then they will coexist peacefully.

Btw, this is all assuming that you are using sid, and probably a third-party KDE.

HTH.

breve

[jeffehobbs]

I'd have to say that breve:

http://www.spiderland.org/breve/

is one of the coolest scientific apps out for OS X right now. It takes some time to wrap your head around it, but with a little work, you can be writing your own 3D OpenGL simulations...!

~jeff

Re:So which is it?

[davesag]

the Windows version is actually in better shape than the OS X version

untrue. the windows version does not contain as many object as far as I can tell - try looking for the Mars Odyssey for example - it's not there in windows, but it it in osx.

well their CEO is called Romeus Y. Arcy

[davesag]

and Romeus Y. Arcy is a pretty obvious anagram for Seymore Cray. I downloaded it, ran it and was amused for about 3 seconds by dablinkenlights. Funnier is their forums with people actually claiming this thing does make their mac run faster. hats-off to a well conceived prank. - best thing is the icon imho.

incedentally there is a real Cray YMP in the Science Museum in London bearing a plaque with a quote from Seymore Cray claiming that when he heard that Apple had bought a Cray to help design the new Mac he replied that was funny, cos he was using a Mac to design the next Cray.