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.

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

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

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.