ATLAS / WORLD HISTORY IN PICTURES

The interactive collection

Turn it. Trace it.
Understand it.

Explore the ideas behind the objects. Turn a model, follow a journey or trace a scientific process—then return to the pictures and historical evidence.

Each lesson is a labelled teaching reconstruction with sources and simplifications. 3D loads only when you choose to explore.

01 / Structures and systems

See relationships in motion.

Explore thirteen browser-native scenes, each paired with a picture and a source-linked lesson.

NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory image of the Sun01 / Space · interactive 3D

Orbit the planetary family

Turn a deliberately compressed model, select all eight planets, then compare it with NASA pictures.

Archival visual accompanying the history of DNA structure and molecular biology02 / Biology · interactive 3D

Turn the double helix

Isolate complementary pairs and the two backbones, then open the illustrated DNA history.

Historical visual accompanying the evidence for plate tectonics03 / Earth · interactive 3D

Move Earth’s plates

Compare divergent, oceanic-subduction and transform boundaries in a sourced teaching cross-section.

Historical portrait of Michael Faraday accompanying the history of electromagnetism04 / Energy · interactive 3D

Turn motion into current

Move a magnet through a coil and see why changing magnetic flux—not a stationary magnet—matters.

Seventeenth-century telescopes displayed at Museo Galileo05 / Optics · interactive 3D

Follow light through a telescope

Adjust aperture and focus in a simplified Galilean ray path, then return to the real museum instrument.

Archival plate from Robert Hooke’s Micrographia showing magnified silk06 / Microscopy · interactive 3D

Bring the small world into focus

Move the specimen stage, switch objectives and follow illumination from source to eyepiece.

Open copy of William Harvey's De Motu Cordis showing experiments on venous valves07 / Physiology · interactive 3D

Trace one continuous circulation

Follow blood from the body through the right heart, lungs, left heart and back to the body.

Photograph of an early three-bath PCR thermal cycling machine08 / Molecular diagnostics · interactive 3D

Cycle a DNA target

Separate strands, bind primers and extend new DNA beside a photographed early thermal cycler.

Modern CT scanner and patient table at CA Dean Hospital09 / Medical imaging · interactive 3D

Build a CT slice

Follow X-ray measurements around one section, then see how computation turns many views into a cross-section.

Composite portraits of Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna10 / Gene editing · interactive 3D

Guide, cut, then repair

Match a guide, bind Cas9, cut a target and separate the variable repair outcome from the molecular tool.

Preserved Mark One whole-body MRI scanner on display at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary11 / Medical imaging · interactive 3D

Turn alignment into an MRI signal

Separate net alignment, radio-frequency excitation, relaxation detection and spatial encoding.

Photograph of biochemist Katalin Karikó12 / Immunology · interactive 3D

Follow a message into immune memory

Trace lipid delivery, cytoplasmic translation, antigen display and the formation of immune memory.

1903 Wright Flyer and buildings at Kill Devil Hills13 / Aeronautics · interactive 3D

Balance force and control

Distinguish lift, weight, thrust and drag from roll, pitch and yaw on a schematic Wright Flyer.

02 / Objects and mechanisms

Look inside the ingenuity.

Eight schematic models connect working parts with the people, places and evidence behind them. Open a lesson for its sources, limitations and downloads.

A timeline of changing knowledge

Play the sequence, step through it, or choose a milestone. Spacing on the axis measures elapsed time.

8 of 8
2500 BCE: Brick, water and an Indus city-25001290 BCE: The shaduf and the work of irrigation1291 CE: The layers of an astrolabe1450 CE: Pressure, type and the printed page1712 CE: The Newcomen power stroke1712 CE: Power, reset and repeat1752 CE: Current, paddles and a turning axle1914 CE: A chamber between two water levels1914

1914 CE · A chamber between two water levels. Watch the gates close before the chamber rises. Scrub back and forth to see why the upper gates open only after the water levels match. Read the study →

Read every milestone as text
  1. 2500 BCE — Brick, water and an Indus city. Turn the basin around and slide its east wall aside to reveal the interior. Compare the opposing stairs, floor and waterproofing layer in an architectural cutaway.
  2. 1290 BCE — The shaduf and the work of irrigation. Follow the bucket and counterweight on opposite sides of a pivot. This view explains the lever principle while the accompanying study examines irrigation through an ancient tomb scene and a later model.
  3. 1291 CE — The layers of an astrolabe. Explore a layered astronomical instrument. Rotate the model to inspect the body, central pivot and moving star framework; then compare the teaching model with the surviving object record.
  4. 1450 CE — Pressure, type and the printed page. Turn the press around, follow the bed and pause the screw at the moment of pressure. Separate the motion of the turning spindle from the platen that presses the paper.
  5. 1712 CE — The Newcomen power stroke. Inspect the piston, beam and pump rod from different angles. Follow one power stroke and distinguish the force on the piston from the motion transmitted to the mine pump.
  6. 1712 CE — Power, reset and repeat. Follow a full motion cycle: the piston descends during the power stroke and rises again as the heavier pump side descends. Pause and turn the engine to compare the two movements.
  7. 1752 CE — Current, paddles and a turning axle. Examine a current-driven wheel and its axle. The rotating paddles demonstrate how moving water can turn a mechanism, before gears or belts carry that power to other work.
  8. 1914 CE — A chamber between two water levels. Watch the gates close before the chamber rises. Scrub back and forth to see why the upper gates open only after the water levels match.

The first circumnavigation: selected waypoints

The line joins selected waypoints schematically. It does not reproduce the ship’s exact course; coastlines are modern. Playback advances between milestones rather than representing travel speed.

1519 — 1522A voyage around the world

Sanlúcar de Barrameda · Strait of Magellan · Guam · Mactan · Tidore, Maluku · Cape of Good Hope · Sanlúcar de Barrameda

Loads the globe on request. A full text route is below.

1519 · departure · Sanlúcar de Barrameda. The expedition left Spain seeking a westward route to the Spice Islands.

  1. The expedition left Spain seeking a westward route to the Spice Islands.

  2. A passage through southern South America brought the surviving ships into the Pacific.

  3. The fleet reached Guam after crossing the Pacific. The islands already had established communities and maritime histories.

  4. Magellan died during fighting at Mactan. He did not personally complete the circumnavigation.

  5. The expedition reached the clove-producing islands that had motivated its commercial objective.

  6. Victoria returned west across the Indian Ocean and around southern Africa under Elcano.

  7. Victoria’s return completed the first documented circumnavigation. The achievement depended on a multinational crew and came with severe losses.

Expedition documents and sources ↗ · Modern basemap: Natural Earth / CesiumJS.

Read the voyage, its context and its sources →