Things I Like - Sciences

Mr. White forwarded this link – check out the World’s Best Illusion on Inside Science News Service for an incredible animation that explains why baseball’s curve ball is tough to hit. This kind of thing really makes you wonder how much you can trust what you think you’re seeing.

Another illusion from the article is this pair of photographs:

One appears to be male; the other, female. Both faces actually belong to the same person, digitally altered by Richard Russell of Harvard University. The dark parts of the photograph are a little darker and light parts are a little lighter in the "female" photograph. The subtle changes suggest that one way our brains may sort out sex is to notice how strong the contrast is between features.
~ Inside Science

I saw something similar at Wired Magazine that had a photo of what looked like Albert Einstein up close but like Marilyn Monroe from across the room.* How does that happen? As explained in the article:

Our eyes pick up resolutions with both high spatial frequencies (sharp lines) and low ones (blurred shapes). By blending the high frequencies from one picture with the lows from another, Oliva creates images that change as a function of distance and time—allowing her to parse how humans absorb visual information. Turns out that we perceive coarse features quickly, within the first 30 milliseconds, and then home in on details at around 100 milliseconds. We also focus on the higher frequencies close up and register softer shapes from afar.
~ Wired

And I thought the sign across the street was blurry because my eyes were going bad.

* You will have to go to the site to see this photo - it didn't really translate.