Pictures and movies of molecular systems

Data for pictures and movies were obtained by software package MACSIMUS, pictures by Mark VandeWettering "reasonably intelligent raytracer" (MTV RayTracer), stereograms by original software.

These pictures and movies are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

PF

• [2000] [2001] [2002] [2003] [2004] [2005] [2006] [2007] [2008] [2009]
• [2010] [2011] [2012] [2013] [2014] [2015] [2016] [2017] [2018]

Animations

• Normal mode vibrations of Al₂Cl₆
• Structure of water, animated picture of the full correlation function
• Star cluster, 300 stars in 1 billion years

Classical stereo pictures

The left pair of pictures (left and central) is for "parallel eyes" eyes, i.e., you should "view through" the screen, in other words watch an imaginary point behind the screen (similarly as for the stereograms below). The right pair (central and right picture) is for "crossed eyes", i.e., you should watch a point in between the screen and your eyes (to do this, it may help to put a finger in front of your nose and to move it gradually towards the screen, when the finger is approximately in the middle, both pictures behind the finger should merge into one stereo picture). Some people prefer the "view through" style, some the "crossed eyes" one.

• Backbone of crambin (31 KiB), stereo picture for parallel eyes Alpha-helix is yellow. Crambin is a small plant seed protein.
• Cubane (17 KiB), stereo picture of C₈H₈
• Essential motions of SH3 domain protein with a proline-rich ligand (108 KiB),

3D illusion on a flat screen—stereograms

All stereograms are of the "parallel eye" or "view through" type, i.e., you should watch an imaginary point behind the screen. Preferred screen size is 1024x768 or larger at 72-120 dpi, on 800x600 displays it is recommended to view the image in a new window (Unix: click the link by middle mouse button, Windoze: right mouse and select New Window), make it fullscreen, eventually center the image using scroll bars. Recommended distance from the screen is 25-50 cm (10-20&qquot;).

• Biphenyl (827x512, 133 KiB)
• Ethanol (795x496, 129 KiB), in cis-conformation with oxygen lone electron pair
• Cytochrom C (795x496, 103 KiB)
• Fullerene (624x360, 96 KiB), C60

I know that the above instructions are useless for many people who cannot control their eyes independently (in the same way as it is hopeless to play a tone on a violin and let me search for the corresponding key on a piano). The following hints sometimes help:

• If you are moderately near-sighted, take your glasses off; the optimum watching distance may be then shorter than recommended above.
• Start watching the screen from very short distance, without trying to focus—just relax. While seeing a blurry image, slowly move away from the screen.
• If you can see your nose reflected from the screen (difficult on modern monitors), focus on this reflection. You may try to put a small mirror on the screen and watch your nose there. This technique depends a lot on screen resolution.
• It is probably easier for a beginner to get a 3D effect for smaller images (higher resolution); on the other hand, the 3D effect is more pronounced for larger images.

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