Hyperspace and Grannies

I think this is one of the most beautiful images I've seen in a long time. Thanks to Astronomy Picture Of The Day. I'd love to use this as a record cover.

Been reading Michio Kaku's book about Hyperspace, which is warping my mind in lovely non-Euclidean ways. (And includes the mathematical proof of my usual claim "I'm not drunk, in the Fourth Dimension, I'm walking a perfectly straight line.")

Field theories are clumbsy and inelegant in 3-dimensional space. (OK, 4-dimensional space-time, really.) But when you jack the number of dimensions up to 10, the maths suddenly becomes simple and beautiful and elegant. I'm trying to think of this as a metaphor for my own life right now. Things may seem convoluted and inelegant, but on a higher level, they make some grander kind of sense.

Also, totally unrelated, my father told me the story behind the "Mathematical Ring" that I inherited from my grandmother. She bought it "for herself" with the royalties from her first book. (My Maths Grannie wrote mathematical textbooks. As distinct from the Science Grannie, who lectured and wrote papers on Botany.) This somehow makes it even more special.