Max Cooper's Ascent — Making of the Music video
Enter the 5th dimension
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Here, I show some early prototype scenes generated from the animation system during development and testing. There was a lot testing.
These scenes are short and evolve slowly. They built from keyframes (but fewer) in the same way as the final Ascent video.
The animations here have no audio.
A cube evolves from 2 to 8 dimensions. The colored lines in the center show the unit axes. This scene served as the inspiration for the start of the Ascent video. The scene ends with the dimensions shrinking back to zero, one at a time. Notice the variety in the complexity of the projected scene as we rotate through various angles.
One of my favourite scenes. Cubes are added to the scene as the camera zooms in. The lines are formed by the area maps of digits of `\pi` projected onto faces of the cubes. Each scene evolves with one additional dimension added.
A variety of short scenes in black-and-white and color. Rectangles correspond to area maps on the faces of the cube, color-coded by digit.
Area maps projected onto cubes with transparency encoding the z-position (distance from camera).
A long and slow mix of various color scenes
A long and slow mix of various black-and-white scenes.
Chromosomes — music, genomes, split-flaps
A short electronic music concert based on structures of chromosomes 21, Y and 1.
Each track uses a microtonal scale derived from the cytogenetic band positions of the chromosome. Rhythms are based on relative lengths of cytogenetic bands.
Consequences of missing data
Either I've been missing something or nothing has been going on. —Karen Elizabeth Gordon
Missing data are everywhere. Subjects may decline to participate in a survey or fail to answer sensitive questions. A cell culture might fail due to contamination. Instrument failures or mishandling of a sample may lead to missing observations. But why are missing data a problem?
This month, we begin a series of articles about practical and statistical aspects of missing data. We'll see that missing data can increase variability and introduce bias and we will ask whether anything can be done to mitigate these consequences. It turns out that, in the case where we know nothing about the missing subjects, no mitigation is possible. We must accept higher variability and, if we have a suspicion that the missing subjects aren’t completely random, possible bias as well.
Tanujit Dey, T., Lipsitz, S.R., Fitzmaurice, G., Krzywinski, M. & Altman, N. (2026) Points of significance: Consequences of missing data. Nat. Methods 23:1661–1663.
Double Robustness
It is not certain that everything is uncertain. —Blaise Pascal
We have already explored how we can mitigate bias caused by confounding variables in observational studies using propensity score (PS) matching (PSM) and propensity score weighting (PSW). However, any statistical model is only as good as its assumptions and, if it is specified incorrectly, it can itself produce biased estimates of the treatment effect.
This month, we explore double robustness, a powerful statistical concept that provides a valuable “safety net” against the risk of an incorrect model. It offers two opportunities, instead of just one, to obtain a valid estimate of the treatment effect — making it possible to draw credible causal inferences from observational data without having to depend on a single set of modeling assumptions.
Kurz, C.F., Krzywinski, M. & Altman, N. (2026) Points of significance: Double Robustness. Nat. Methods 23:868–869.
Nature Biotechnology cover
My cover design on the 7 April 2026 Nature Biotechnology issue shows the dendrogram that represents a cluster of uniquely expressed (or downregulated) genes in human naive stem cells induced from such cells. Within each dendrogram block, the genomic barcode sequence (sampled from Supplementary Table 1) is depicted with a Code 39 barcode. The highlighted barcode is one of those used for cell isolation.
Ishiguro S. et al. A multi-kingdom genetic barcoding system for precise clone isolation (2026) Nature Biotechnology 44:616–629.
Browse my gallery of cover designs.
Happy 2026 π Day—
Art for the 5%
Celebrate π Day (March 14th) and enjoy the art — but only if you're part of the 5%.
Go ahead, see what you can't see.
Ishihara's Tests for Colour Deficiency
Authentic and accurate images of Ishihara's test plates photographed (and lovingly color-corrected) from the 38-plate Ishihara's Tests for Colour Deficiency.
I also provide the position, size, and color of each circle on each test plate.
