The Math Is Mathing at Max Mara LAUNCHMETRICS SPOTLIGHT
STEM and style aren’t necessarily the most natural of bedfellows. Just ask any fashion designer how they fared in pre-calc. But for Max Mara creative director Ian Griffiths, math and science have more fashion applications than you might think. Following a resort show inspired by Nobel Prize-winner Selma Lagerlöf, Griffiths turned his attention to another female pioneer: Hypatia, a mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher who lived in fourth-century Alexandria. She was one of the first female mathematicians in recorded history, and her geometric and trigonometric discoveries found their way into this season’s sharply angled tailored pieces.
Even the colors on display were inspired by the bubbling vials of a laboratory, including silver nitrate and copper oxide. Vittoria Ceretti opened the show in a brown suit and white shirt worn over a black bra, and the collection focused on neutral tones, which put the emphasis squarely on the silhouettes.
As we know, science is not a perfectly orderly field. Chaos theory exists for a reason, and for this collection, Griffiths translated the concept into crumpled, creased pieces, a reminder that the scientific method has its limits. He quoted Kurt Vonnegut, weighing in on the mystic quality of the field, in his show notes: “Science is magic that works.”
And while the starting point might have been intellectual, you certainly didn’t need an advanced degree to appreciate the simplicity of these clothes. Classic trenches, nipped-waist blazers, and perfectly Italian suiting were a feast for even liberal arts-trained eyes.
Scans of mummies at Chicago’s Field Museum of Natural History uncovered new details about how they were prepared for the afterlife and helped solve a baffling mystery.
NASA astronauts who were part of the SpaceX Crew-8 team discussed their 235-day mission on the International Space Station that ended in hospitalizations.
Chinese Death Star China's military is working on an experimental weapon system that converges multiple streams of microwaves to merge into a powerful energy beam, the South China Morning Post reports. In other words, it's essentially the Death Star from the "Star Wars" franchise. According to the report, scientists claim they've "completed experimental trials on […]
SpaceX is planning to fire the engines of its Dragon cargo spacecraft, which is currently docked to the International Space Station, to practice for the eventual retirement of the orbital lab roughly six years from now. As Space.com reports, it's the first time a SpaceX capsule has fired its thrusters while actively docked. NASA contracted […]
Forty-three monkeys bred for medical research that escaped a compound in South Carolina have been spotted in the woods near the site and workers are using food to try to recapture them, authorities said Friday. The Rhesus macaques made a break for it Wednesday after an employee at the Alpha Genesis facility in Yemassee didn't fully lock a door as she fed and checked on them, officials said. “They are very social monkeys and they travel in groups, so when the first couple go out the door the others tend to just follow right along,” Alpha Genesis CEO Greg Westergaard told CBS News.
Tag Team What's better than one Starship? You guessed it: two of them. By next year, we may get to see a pair of the world's largest rockets work in tandem in a spectacular attempt to refuel one of them in orbit, serving as a crucial milestone towards demonstrating that Starship is capable of carrying […]
A new technology developed by NASA to predict space weather showed that Hurricane Helene produced "enormous" waves in the Earth's upper atmosphere as it came ashore on Sept. 26, the agency says.
