Cocktail Party Physics: images from supernovae to supermodels

Light can be modeled as photons, which are characterized by a wavelength λ and a frequency f. Those quantities are connected by the speed at which the wave travels (which, for electromagnetic waves, is the speed of light). c = f λ, which means that the wavelength decreases as the frequency increases.

Even though humans can see only a very small portion of the electromagnetic spectrum, we are somewhat obsessed about transforming what we see into a format that allows us to share it with other people, or putting it in giant piles in the back of a closet that we really do intend to organize someday. Really.