DRAWN TO MATTER

Science, one figure at a time

FIG. 1

Big ideas, drawn one figure at a time.

Short animated explainers for the physics behind the headlines. Every shot is a numbered figure from a science book that was never printed: ink on cream, one orange line to follow, and the real numbers, with their units.

Watch on YouTube See the plates

FIG. 2

Each episode is one plate.

Coming soon

PLATE 1 · Gravity assists

Speed for free? How a flyby works

In September 2026 ESA’s Juice skimmed past Earth and left about 3.5 km/s faster. Where did the speed come from? The same flyby, drawn from two viewpoints.

Coming soon Earth, drawn in ink and stipple

PLATE 2 · El Niño

Why does El Niño change the weather so far away?

Trade winds normally pile warm water up in the western Pacific, about half a metre higher than off South America. When they weaken, it spreads back east, and weather half a world away feels it.

FIG. 3

How a figure is made.

Every shot is a figure

Each shot is numbered and carries one caption, one sentence long. The caption does the work subtitles would.

One line to follow

Ink on cream, and a single orange accent for the thing that matters: the trajectory, the arrowhead, the word to remember.

Real numbers, with units

8,640 km above the Indian Ocean. 3.5 km/s faster. Any number on screen is one the narration says, and it comes from a source we list.

Calm, exact, a little dry

No hype and no exclamation marks. Slow camera moves, held poses, and time to look at the picture.

FIG. 4

Same book, new subjects.

IOrbits and flybys. Falling, missing, and borrowing speed from planets.
IIOceans and weather. How one warm patch of Pacific reaches round the world.
IIIExoplanets. Transits, wobbling stars, and a planet being eaten by its sun.
IVDark matter. Galaxies that spin too fast for what we can see.
VDark energy. Why the universe’s expansion is speeding up.
VIThe maths inside AI. Words as arrows, and what the arrows share.

A space station drawn in ink with mustard solar panels