Wave 16 is the largest content wave in terms of raw scientific depth: three posts spanning cosmological distances (stellar evolution from main sequence to neutron star), the smallest resolvable scales in fluid (Kolmogorov’s viscous dissipation scale η ≈ 1 mm in air), and the molecular scale of living cells (ATP synthase rotor diameter ≈ 10 nm). Alongside the content, this wave was also dedicated to a long-overdue accessibility pass across the entire platform.
Platform Statistics — March 2029
Wave 16 brings the blog to exactly 100 posts — a milestone that spans 16 content waves, two calendar years and a very wide range of scientific disciplines. The Devlog series alone now tells a coherent story of the platform’s evolution from its first 30 simulations to a 345-simulation educational resource.
Wave 16 Posts
Spotlight #32 — Astrophysics & Stellar Evolution
The HR diagram, stellar interior polytropes, nuclear burning stages (pp chain, CNO, triple-alpha, silicon), core-collapse supernova mechanics, neutron star physics and the TOV equation, and gravitational wave inspiral formulae (Peters 1964, LIGO O3 results).
Learning #26 — Fluid Dynamics & Turbulence
Navier-Stokes equations and dimensional analysis, boundary layer theory (Blasius, log-law of the wall), Kelvin-Helmholtz and Rayleigh-Taylor instabilities, Reynolds decomposition and RANS closure (k-ε, k-ω SST), and Kolmogorov’s 1941 energy cascade with the −5/3 spectrum.
Spotlight #33 — Cell Biology & Molecular Machines
Semi-conservative DNA replication and proofreading error rates, protein folding energy funnels and AlphaFold2, ATP synthase as a proton-driven rotary motor (Mitchell’s chemiosmotic hypothesis, Boyer’s binding change mechanism), cytoskeletal dynamic instability and kinesin stepping, CRISPR-Cas9 PAM recognition and repair outcomes.
Writing Notes
Spotlight #32 required particular care with the gravitational wave section: the chirp mass formalism is typically introduced in graduate GR courses, but expressing it via a simple analogy to the binary’s “frequency fingerprint” made it accessible without losing precision. The comparison of peak GW luminosity (~3.6×1056 erg/s) to the entire visible electromagnetic output of the universe always lands as a genuinely surprising fact.
Learning #26 is the first post in the series to cover a Clay Millennium Problem. The Navier-Stokes existence and smoothness problem is still open; the post carefully distinguishes mathematical incompleteness (we cannot prove smooth solutions always exist) from practical engineering capability (we design aircraft perfectly fine). The Kolmogorov −5/3 law section benefits enormously from the range of scales over which it has been experimentally verified — from tea-cup turbulence to the solar wind.
Spotlight #33 benefitted from the 2023 FDA approval of Casgevy (exagamglogene autotemcel) for sickle cell disease — a real clinical milestone that grounds the CRISPR-Cas9 section in consequence. The ATP synthase section is always popular; the fact that it is a literal rotary motor measured by single-molecule tweezers is one of those results that genuinely surprises most readers encountering it for the first time.
Accessibility Audit — WCAG 2.2 AA
This wave included a systematic pass through the platform against the WCAG 2.2 AA success criteria. The audit covered: colour contrast, keyboard navigation, ARIA labelling, focus management, reflow at 320 px, and reduced-motion support. Below are the key findings and fixes applied.
Colour Contrast (1.4.3, 1.4.11)
Muted text colours in simulation info panels were failing the 4.5:1
normal text ratio. Updated --color-muted from
#6b7280 to #8b95a3 on dark backgrounds,
bringing all body text to ≥4.6:1. Category badge hover states
also fixed.
Keyboard Navigation (2.1.1)
Canvas-based simulations now include a focusable control bar
summary: Tab reaches each simulation, Enter opens a control panel,
Escape closes it. Simulation canvas elements have
role="img" and aria-label describing the
current state.
ARIA Labels (4.1.2)
All icon-only buttons (play/pause, reset, fullscreen) gained
aria-label attributes. Range sliders now use
aria-valuemin, aria-valuemax,
aria-valuenow and aria-valuetext with
human-readable unit descriptions.
Reduced Motion (2.3.3)
All simulations now respect
prefers-reduced-motion: reduce: animation is paused by
default at page load, and auto-playing particle effects are replaced
with a static preview frame. A play button is offered to override
this behaviour.
Reflow at 320 px (1.4.10)
Simulation control panels no longer require horizontal scrolling at 320 px viewport width (WCAG 2.2 criterion). Slider labels now wrap gracefully; stat grids switch to single column at 340 px.
Focus Visible (2.4.7, 2.4.11)
Custom :focus-visible outlines applied globally:
outline: 2px solid var(--accent); outline-offset: 3px.
Removed all outline: none overrides that were
suppressing focus indicators on interactive controls.
WCAG 2.2 Compliance Checklist
- ✓ 1.1.1 Non-text Content — all canvas simulations have descriptive aria-label
- ✓ 1.3.1 Info and Relationships — heading hierarchy (h1→h2→h3) consistent on all pages
- ✓ 1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum) — all text ≥4.5:1 normal, ≥3:1 large text
- ✓ 1.4.10 Reflow — no horizontal scroll at 320 px / 400% zoom
- ✓ 1.4.11 Non-text Contrast — UI component borders ≥3:1 against neighbouring colours
- ✓ 2.1.1 Keyboard — all functionality reachable without a pointer device
- ✓ 2.4.3 Focus Order — logical tab order throughout all pages
- ✓ 2.4.7 Focus Visible — custom outline on all interactive elements
- ✓ 2.4.11 Focus Appearance (new in 2.2) — focus indicator area ≥3 CSS px
- ✓ 2.5.3 Label in Name — visible label text matches accessible name on all buttons
- ✓ 3.3.1 Error Identification — search empty-state and invalid input messages added
- ⚠ 1.2.2 Captions (prerecorded) — no video content yet; deferred until video walkthroughs added
Internationalisation (i18n) Notes
All 345 simulations currently ship full Ukrainian (/uk/)
translations of their titles, descriptions and control labels. This wave
audited the translation quality and found several simulations in the
electronics and signals
categories had incomplete Ukrainian UI strings (partially left as
English). These have been backfilled using consistent terminology
aligned with the existing Ukrainian scientific vocabulary used across
the platform.
The blog posts themselves remain English-only. A future wave will introduce Ukrainian blog summaries (not full translations) to support the Ukrainian-speaking audience that represents a significant portion of direct traffic. The JSON-LD metadata is already language-neutral.
Technical Improvements
Service Worker (v16)
Cache version bumped to sim-v16. Added explicit caching of
/shared/theme.css, /shared/components.css and
/shared/components.js in the precache manifest —
these files were previously only in the runtime cache and caused a flash
of unstyled content on first offline visit. The cache-then-network
strategy for blog posts ensures readers always get the newest content
while maintaining offline access to previously visited posts.
Structured Data Audit
All blog posts now have consistent BlogPosting +
BreadcrumbList JSON-LD. Simulation pages had their
SoftwareApplication JSON-LD validated against
Google’s Rich Results Test—16 simulations were missing the
required applicationCategory field and have been updated.
The sitemap now contains 460+ URLs covering all EN and UK simulation
pages, category pages and blog posts.
Performance: Canvas Memory Management
A recurring issue discovered during the accessibility audit: simulations
that are navigated away from but not fully unloaded were continuing to
request animation frames, consuming CPU and contributing to battery
drain. Added a global
visibilitychange listener and
IntersectionObserver-based pause toggle to all Three.js
simulations. Simulations now automatically pause when the tab is hidden
or the canvas scrolls out of the viewport by more than 100 px.
Wave 17 Preview
Number Theory & Cryptography
Prime number theorem, Riemann hypothesis, modular arithmetic, RSA, elliptic curve cryptography and post-quantum lattice-based schemes.
Statistical Mechanics & Phase Transitions
Partition functions, Ising model exact solution, Landau theory, renormalisation group, universality classes, and Monte Carlo methods.
Neuroscience & Neural Circuits
Hodgkin-Huxley model, synaptic plasticity and Hebbian learning, oscillatory dynamics, connectomics, and whole-brain modelling approaches.
Platform Search 2.0
Inverted-index search redesign, tag faceting, simulation “difficulty” metadata, and a curated learning path system.
Reaching 100 Posts
The 100th blog post is a quiet milestone. The platform started as a collection of thirty physics simulations with a handful of one-paragraph descriptions. The blog was added in the first major content wave to provide context: the physics behind the animations, the equations the animations were demonstrating. Over sixteen waves the posts have grown from brief captions to deep-dive articles that stand alone as learning resources even without the interactivity.
The Learning series covers university-level physics, mathematics, and biology from first principles. The Spotlight series explores frontier science — gravitational waves, quantum computing, climate tipping points, CRISPR therapeutics — with the same rigour. The cumulative word count across all 100 posts is roughly equivalent to a physics textbook, but organised on the web and connected to live simulations rather than static diagrams.
Wave 17 will focus on connecting the mathematical foundations (number theory, statistical mechanics) more explicitly to the simulations that demonstrate them, building navigable learning paths through the content for readers at different entry levels. Thank you for reading.