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What makes M.C. Escher's drawings so fascinating? The fact that they're incredibly realistic drawings of impossible structures, right? Apparently, they're not as impossible as they seem. Researchers at the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology are working on designing and building 3D structures of M.C. Escher's drawings, bringing to life what is, technically, impossible.

You're probably familiar with M.C. Escher's space and gravity-defying work "Relativity," featuring its set of impossibly interconnected staircases. It was good, but adding LEGOs and scenes from the original Star Wars trilogy is even better. Which is exactly what expert LEGO modeler Paul Vermeesch did in this mind-blowing model. And if you think this is amazing, just wait until you see what surprises are on the back of the model.

Yesterday, there was a video floating around (seen after the break) of a wooden and "working" recreation of M. C. Escher's Waterfall. The demonstrator poured water into one side, then the water seemed to flow around the machine forever. We couldn't quite figure it out, as it didn't seem to be computer-generated, but defaulted on the broad net of "camera tricks." Luckily for us, and anyone else stumped by the video, David Goldman developed a theory and made a handy chart to illustrate the idea. The short of it seems to pretty much be camera tricks and editing magic. Make sure to head past the break to check out the original video.

This M.C. Escher-inspired diagram has apparently been an engineering in-joke for decades, but thanks to the magic of the Internet, it's currently making the rounds once again. Not only do the parts have names like "trichotometric indicator support" and "rectabular excrusion bracket"; they're all impossible objects.

(via Neatorama)