Mandelbulb: The Unravelling of the Real 3D Mandelbrot Fractal

People have been puzzling over the possibility of a three-dimensional Mandelbrot since shortly after the discovery of the original 2-D figure. This recent work, while not absolutely definitively The Answer, strongly suggests that yes, it’s probably there — depending, of course, on what we mean by “there”, because as the relevant discussions never tire of repeating, there is no 3-D analogue of the complex number field in which such a creature would necessarily exist.

Warning: some of the images on this page, apart from being spectacularly beautiful, are truly immense, and the traffic from the slashdotting is making for a slow load. Patience.

(via Slashdot)