Earlier this month the still-incomplete Burj Dubai building in Dubai officially surpassed the height of all other buildings, towers and masts worldwide, making it the tallest man-made structure on the planet.

Currently standing at a staggering 688 m, construction of Burj Dubai is set to continue for another year, and the final height will not be announced until the building opens in September 2009.

As you can see, the Google Earth image was taken while the building was still just a toddler, but you can get an idea of how it might look with a 3D model.

Before the Burj Dubai came along the process for deciding on the world’s tallest building was strangely complex - there’s actually 4 possible categories to consider - and there were separate records for supported masts.

Burj Dubai simplified the debate by taking the top spot in all possible categories, but it gives us an opportunity to revisit all the previous record holders, many of which have been updated since we previously looked at tall buildings and the world’s tallest towers.

Taipei 101 in Taiwan once held the “tallest building” record in 3 of the 4 possible categories with its architectural height of 508 m, highest occupied floor of 438 m and roof height of 448 m.

For the moment at least, Taipei 101 retains the title of largest completed building, but after the completion of Burj Dubai it will have to settle for being the location of the world’s fastest ascending elevator, which can get you up to the 101st floor at a gut-wrenching 37.7 mph!

Chicago’s Sears Tower was once the holder of all tall building records. Taipei 101 failed to conquer its record of “height with antenna”, at 529 m, but Burj Dubai has easily cleared that without the need of extra-reaching aerials.

Lastly, the rope-supported KVLY-TV mast in Blanchard, North Dakota, was officially the tallest man-made structure on the planet at a height of 629 m. The fact that Burj Dubai already tops this height without any external supports is testament to just how amazing an engineering feat it really is.

Further reading at the Wikipedia pages for Burj Dubai, Taipei 101, Sears tower and KVLY-TV mast.

On the very northernmost coast of Taiwan lies the spookily bizarre San Zhi resort, which consists entirely of circular, multi-coloured pods stacked on top of one another. Furthermore, these strange habitats have been completely abandoned for a number of years, and are slowly rotting away into nothing.

One story says that the project had to be abandoned after several fatal accidents occurred during construction, and according to local rumours, this ghost city is now haunted by those who died building it.

There seems to be very little actual information about these buildings available online (at least in English), but they may have been built by the government in the early 80s “in an attempt to position this as a luxurious holiday location for the rich of Taipei”. The concept behind the strange design might have been that they could expand the buildings vertically as required, simply by adding more pods on top.

Whatever the truth behind this mysterious place, make sure you check out these stunning HDR photographs of these utterly weird buildings.

Thanks to Chris Case and James Boorman-Padgett.

Synchrotrons are just a fancy type of particle accelerator.

I’m not the world’s greatest physicist but, as far as I understand it, they are circular accelerators that use an electricity field to speed up sub atomic particles to something near the speed of light and a synchronous magnetic field to rotate the beam (hence the name).

The resulting synchrotron radiation is a million times brighter than normal sunlight and a billion times stronger than your everyday X-ray - making it great for looking inside stuff.

One of the first dedicated synchrotrons was built underground in Daresbury, UK, but will close next year.

However, until then you can get a live status display of the beam. I don’t understand it either but it looks cool to leave it on the screen at work.

Lightsources lists 69 different synchrotrons around the globe, so we’re only going to look at a few of the most attractive.

ESRF, Grenoble, France:

NSRRC, Hsinchu, Taiwan

BESSY, Germany:

And finally, Diamond is the UK’s new synchrotron near Didcot, Oxfordshire.

Although on Google Earth construction has just started, the Diamond “light source” (radiation sounded too dangerous) was first used earlier this year.

Coincidently, we last looked at particle accelerators around this time last year. I hereby name this particle accelerator week!

Google Earth Community member ChrisJHall also put together an excellent collection of Synchrotrons.

More info: Back to basics, Synchrotron (device), Synchrotron radiation & Diamond Light Source.

Many thanks to ChrisJHall

You would think that deciding on the world’s tallest building would be pretty simple: get a big measuring tape, measure the buildings, biggest one wins. Easy, huh? Well, apparently not.

The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat have defined four categories on which to measure the world’s tallest buildings. They are:

1. Height to the structural or architectural top (including spires and pinnacles, but not antennas, masts or flagpoles)
2. Height to the highest occupied floor
3. Height to the top of the roof
4. Height to the top of antenna

The height is measured from the street level of the main entrance (so basements aren’t included).

Kuala Lumpur’s fantastic Petronas Towers comes second place in the architectural height category at 452m, but they are the tallest twin towers in the world. You can visit the sky bridge, although tickets sell out fast.

When Taipei 101 in Taiwan was completed on April 20, 2004 it took the first three of the four tallest building titles with an architectural height of 508m, a highest occupied floor of 438m and a roof height of 448m. Make sure you click through to the Google Local map because this tower has an absolutely monstrous shadow.

Chicago’s Sears Tower once led the way in all four categories but today is only top in the category of height with antenna at 529m. However; this is the largest height overall. Tourists can visit the 103rd floor for fantastic views over Chicago.

All three towers can be compared at Sky Scraper Page.

Thanks: Kyle Gunn, jher, Marcin, wil Grundon, Steve Ransom, Kenneth, Benjamin, Paul, Stilt, Joe Chang & Tim

In French New Caledonia there’s a natural heart shaped swamp which featured on the cover of ‘Earth from Above‘, a collection of photographs by Yann Arthus Bertrand. The photo was titled ‘HEART IN VOH’.

In Taipei there’s a heart shaped pool, which also has a heart shaped island in the middle. Surely it must be man made though?

Finally, on the coast of Croatia, is this gorgeous heart shaped island, lined on every side with golden sands. Honeymoon location anyone?

Thanks: Rob B, Julien and pilotin.