Joy Division’s striking Unknown Pleasures album cover holds a scientific mystery. The image’s true origin was lost until senior graphics editor Jen Christiansen traced it from the Cambridge Encyclopedia of Astronomy to its debut in a 1971 issue of Scientific American and then all the way to Cornell’s Rare Book Room. The computer-generated stacked plot of a famous pulsar came from a 1970 dissertation by Harold Dumont Craft Jr—who had no idea his data visualization was featured on one of rock’s classic albums.
Host: Jen Christiansen Video editor: Chris Schodt Image credits: Jen Christiansen, Joy Division, The Cambridge Encyclopaedia of Astronomy, Harold D. Craft Jr., Alberto Puente, Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library, Getty Images