The amount of plastic on Earth currently outweighs us humans. So does the amount of bricks, concrete, and asphalt. To illustrate these statistics, Nikita Shtarkman, Engr '19, teamed up with Professor Brice Ménard to create the interactive website Biocubes.net. The infographic uses vivid illustrations to depict how "technomass," or man-made materials, has grown exponentially over the last 100 years, surpassing the weight of all biomass in 2020.
"Biocubes tells a story about the human impact on the world," Shtarkman says. "Our goal was to take a massive global phenomenon that feels incomprehensible and describe it tangibly."
Shtarkman designed and executed visualizations on the project. Previously, he and Ménard worked together on a similar project, Map of the Universe, a visual depicting the massive size of the observable universe.
"It is always a pleasure working with Brice," Shtarkman says, "and I look forward to continuing this collaboration for many years to come."
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