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WELCOME to the weird world of blue cones. No, it鈥檚 not a model of a surreal futuristic city, but a room vital to ensuring that satellites collect accurate environmental data. To enter, you go through what must be one of the strangest-looking doors on the planet (below).
Inside, you can hear your own heart beat. That鈥檚 because it鈥檚 an echo-free zone called an anechoic chamber. Rather than killing sound echoes, though, this one absorbs microwaves, making it perfect for calibrating antennas that use microwaves to monitor environmental change.
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, who runs the chamber at the Technical University of Denmark, has used it to test antennas for measuring the . Data on both are critical to monitoring and analysing weather patterns and climate change, he says. Pivnenko had the echo-absorbing cones made in blue instead of the traditional black to make the working environment less gloomy.
Photographer snapped the chamber as part of a project to capture the beauty of otherwise utilitarian scientific and industrial spaces. 鈥淵ou鈥檙e not used to being in a room with abstract spikes that look really threatening, but which are really colourful, almost like a movie set or fantasy,鈥� he says.
This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淓cho-free zone鈥�
