It’s intended to visually represent an atom with radiation emitting away from it.
It’s not “univeral” in the sense that anyone could understand it, but in the sense that anyone who knows about what radiation is would have a clue - be them people now, or some far-future civilisation stumbling across a nuclear dump site, or aliens. It’s a depiction of what is going on.
The symbol also uses elements of graphic design that make it feel unwelcoming and hostile even if you have no understanding at all. It’s a design that clearly telegraphs “this is not a good thing”
Similar for the biohazard sign, which in its strange curves and spines looks almost “mutated”
I respect all the science and research in hostile design, but then I rember the chilli peppers, just trying to keep safe from mamals by simulating the feeling of fire in their mouths…
Evolution doesn’t really work that way though. Peppers didn’t evolve spiciness to keep animals away, they essentially randomly developed a mutation that made them unpalatable to most animals, and that increased their odds of survival. It’s not doing X for Y reason, it’s X happening with Y as a consequence.
It’s intended to visually represent an atom with radiation emitting away from it.
It’s not “univeral” in the sense that anyone could understand it, but in the sense that anyone who knows about what radiation is would have a clue - be them people now, or some far-future civilisation stumbling across a nuclear dump site, or aliens. It’s a depiction of what is going on.
The symbol also uses elements of graphic design that make it feel unwelcoming and hostile even if you have no understanding at all. It’s a design that clearly telegraphs “this is not a good thing”
Similar for the biohazard sign, which in its strange curves and spines looks almost “mutated”
I respect all the science and research in hostile design, but then I rember the chilli peppers, just trying to keep safe from mamals by simulating the feeling of fire in their mouths…
Evolution doesn’t really work that way though. Peppers didn’t evolve spiciness to keep animals away, they essentially randomly developed a mutation that made them unpalatable to most animals, and that increased their odds of survival. It’s not doing X for Y reason, it’s X happening with Y as a consequence.