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Fathom Information Design

@fathom.info
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We build platforms and products for understanding data. fathom.info

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Fathom Information Design @fathom.info · 21/09/2026
A close up image of the final embroidered owl image on a piece of scrap fabric.An open laptop showing the embroidery file used to embroider an owl face doodle onto a piece of scrap fabric.
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Fathom Information Design @fathom.info · 21/09/2026
We set aside some time last week to tinker around with our office tools! Please enjoy Ellory's signature Angry Owl doodle taking on a new form with our embroidery machine (and keep an eye out for more on our other recent experiments!)
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Fathom Information Design @fathom.info · 18/09/2026
You can read more about the underlying methods behind Delphy (and let Mark be your MCMC MC) here: www.fathom.info/notebook/260...
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Fathom Information Design @fathom.info · 18/09/2026
One of our goals with Delphy is to be a resource for scientists and researchers who need to work with sequencing data, but do not have the technical expertise or computing resources to make use of traditional tools for phylogenetic inference.
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Fathom Information Design @fathom.info · 18/09/2026
To celebrate Delphy's publication in Nature this week, Mark put together a guide for understanding the basics of Markov Chain Monte Carlo and why these methods are so useful for tracking the evolution of an outbreak.
fathom.info
Let me be your MCMC MC: a non-technical guide to Delphy, part 1 | Fathom Information Design
The statistics behind Bayesian phylogenetics can be complex, but not so bad that a little explanation won't clear things up.
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Reposted by Fathom Information Design
Broad Institute @broadinstitute.org · 16/09/2026
To aid in virus outbreak responses, Broad researchers from @sabetilab.bsky.social and @fathom.info created Delphy.bio, a free web tool to reconstruct how a virus is spreading and changing using viral genomic data, reducing a months-long task into one that takes hours.
broadinstitute.org
Software rapidly tracks viral variants with high accuracy
A new web-based program called Delphy assembles viral family trees at unprecedented speed to aid outbreak responses.
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Fathom Information Design @fathom.info · 16/09/2026
You can read more about Delphy here: www.fathom.info/notebook/260... Or just get right into Delphy: www.delphy.bio
delphy.bio
Delphy
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Fathom Information Design @fathom.info · 16/09/2026
Sequencing data is a critical source of information when it comes to understanding how a pathogen spreads and evolves over time, and we built Delphy's web interface to remove as many barriers to entry for phylogenetics as possible.
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Fathom Information Design @fathom.info · 16/09/2026
Delphy was developed in collaboration with Patrick Varilly and the @sabetilab.bsky.social as part of our efforts to develop fast and accessible tools for outbreak surveillance, and we can't wait to see Delphy in the hands of a whole new audience of researchers and public health workers.
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Fathom Information Design @fathom.info · 16/09/2026
We’re incredibly excited to share that Delphy, our tool for generating and exploring phylogenetic trees, has been published in Nature! Check out the paper here! www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Mark sitting at his desk with Delphy up on his monitor looking at three selected nodes of interest in the Lineages view of Delphy. 
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Fathom Information Design @fathom.info · 14/09/2026
And a big thank you to Dila for all her work on some exciting Rowboat mapping updates you'll be seeing very soon!
Coordinates highlighted on a soon to be released Rowboat mapping feature in the shape of a person in a rowboat.
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Fathom Information Design @fathom.info · 14/09/2026
Last Friday, our intern Dila said goodbye with an incredible presentation all about her journey navigating Javascript and CSS with us this summer. We sent her off with a custom All Streets map of Cyprus and wish her all the best in her next adventure!
Dila presenting a time series chart she put together to show us the trajectory of her comfort using Javascript and CSS this summer. The slide shows that her Javascript abilities rose steeply in the first half of the summer, but as she began learning CSS, her Javascript fell off. A map of Cyprus where every line is a street in Cyprus.
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Fathom Information Design @fathom.info · 10/09/2026
We wrote about our latest work on a mundane but important feature we’re excited about in Rowboat. Our intern Rahul’s picture of a smiley face in the data table isn’t exactly the intended use case, but we’re delighted that we've made that Easter egg possible. www.fathom.info/notebook/260...
Selecting a set of cells across a handful empty columns in Rowboat to form a smiley face.
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Fathom Information Design @fathom.info · 02/09/2026
...and the impact of ChatGPT on the college admissions process.
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Fathom Information Design @fathom.info · 02/09/2026
the increasing risks of space debris...
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Fathom Information Design @fathom.info · 02/09/2026
Check out some of her past projects exploring AI political deepfakes...
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Fathom Information Design @fathom.info · 02/09/2026
This summer, we welcomed Rekha as the latest member of our team! Rekha is a developer and designer with a background in theoretical linguistics and interactive journalism.
A headshot of Rekha sitting on a couch at the Fathom office.
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Fathom Information Design @fathom.info · 28/08/2026
Maybe not as major as some of the new features we're cooking up, but we're always looking for ways to get to the fun stuff of spotting patterns and finding answers in data as fast as possible. You can take a look at NYC's finest rodents for yourself here: rowbo.at/t33cgssh
rowbo.at
Rowboat
Welcome to Rowboat–a lightning fast tool for understanding large datasets. Sign in or create a free account to get started.
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Fathom Information Design @fathom.info · 28/08/2026
Revisiting some old favorite datasets in Rowboat lately (*cough* Squirrels! *cough*), I've been appreciating some of our recent updates that make it much easier to work with and apply changes to multiple columns at the same time.
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Fathom Information Design @fathom.info · 25/08/2026
Last week we said a fond farewell to Rahul on the last day of his internship. We've loved hearing all about his dragon boat team (they paddle, never row), his band (book 'em early), and his passion for image making (check out the cyanotype workshop he put together for us!) We'll miss you Rahul!
Members of the Fathom team gathered around our conference table making music with an assortment of musical instruments. Rahul stands in the center of the picture holding a guitar.
Members of the Fathom team sitting in a circle on the ground at the Charles River Esplanade for Rahul's final lunch.
Cyanotype images from Rahul's workshop being exposed to the sun on our outdoor patio.Cyanotype images from Rahul's workshop drying off on the kitchen counter in the office.
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Fathom Information Design @fathom.info · 19/08/2026
Did you catch the solar eclipse last week, wherever you were in the world? Here in Boston, we saw a delightful partial eclipse, featuring Paul's Eclipto box, for the naked eye, and Rahul's stunning photos, captured through eclipse glasses.
Cardboard box for viewing the Eclipse, labeled "ECLIPTO"
Crisp photo of partial solar eclipse
Orange glow of partial solar eclipse in clouds
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Fathom Information Design @fathom.info · 17/06/2026
See our 2019 creations in this gallery: www.fathom.info/holiday/reso...
fathom.info
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Fathom Information Design @fathom.info · 17/06/2026
One of our beloved tools (or toys) in the office is this knitting machine, which we once used to make personalized patterns for our 2019 holiday cards. Lately, we've been getting re-acquainted with the machine by making small two-color swatches out of digital image patterns.
A Space Invader character knitted in purple, contrasting against a green-blue yarn
A rippling pattern in a light blue-green color, contrasting against a dark green yarn
A hand moving the knitting carriage across the machine, lengthening a knitted fabric that hangs down from the needles
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Fathom Information Design @fathom.info · 10/06/2026
Paul recently shared with us some updates on his delightfully tiny typeface, Lilliput! He promises more styles coming soon, for all your woodland creature–sized typesetting needs. 🐿️📕
Extreme close-up of "Lilliput" printed on paper, with a pencil tip, small figurine, and coin for scaleA few paragraphs of text set in LilliputSome examples of text set in Lilliput
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Fathom Information Design @fathom.info · 03/06/2026
Thanks to Nermine for helping with Ben's class at MIT this semester, and for taking time to come share your work with us at the office! We gained a whole new appreciation for wind and how it shapes everything around us. 🌬️
Nermine presenting at the front of the room while some people gather to look at a spread of cards on the table.
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Fathom Information Design @fathom.info · 29/05/2026
To do this handy "filter preview" trick, hold down Alt or Option while hovering over an entry in a histogram, bar chart, or map list. You can play with the file here: rowbo.at/2qopaqgc Note on data: this is cobbled together from individual tables on states' history or genealogy sites.
rowbo.at
Rowboat
Welcome to Rowboat–a lightning fast tool for understanding large datasets. Sign in or create a free account to get started.
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Fathom Information Design @fathom.info · 29/05/2026
Lately, we've been going down a rabbit hole of data about place names in the US. Here, we can take our New England town establishment data into Rowboat and do two cool things: see a detailed county map and play it over time to see the northward spread of towns in the area, all in just 15 seconds.
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Fathom Information Design @fathom.info · 27/05/2026
You can enter Scaled in Miles here: www.fathom.info/miles-web/ Or read more about the project (and its print companion) here: www.fathom.info/miles/
fathom.info
Scaled in Miles
Let’s talk Milestones. Scaled in Miles explores and plays the career and collaborations of Miles Davis
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Fathom Information Design @fathom.info · 27/05/2026
This look into the iconic career of Miles Davis pays tribute to the profound influence Miles had on the genre of jazz by exploring the many collaborations that shaped his body of work.
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Fathom Information Design @fathom.info · 27/05/2026
Yesterday marked the 100th anniversary of the birth of Miles Davis. A little over a decade ago, Mark's passion for jazz developed into one of our all-time favorite projects: Scaled in Miles.
A close up shot of our Scaled in Miles poster zoomed into a cluster of recording sessions between Miles and Kenny Clarke.
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Fathom Information Design @fathom.info · 04/05/2026
Today, we want to wish a very happy 89th birthday to one of our all time favorite collaborators: Mr. Ron Carter. We are so grateful to have had the opportunity to work with Maestro and his incredible team over the years! roncarteruniverse.com
Ellory and Libby standing on either side of legendary bassist Ron Carter after a performance on his 88th birthday.
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Fathom Information Design @fathom.info · 03/04/2026
We had so much fun playing with these and can't wait to tinker again!
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Fathom Information Design @fathom.info · 03/04/2026
These are powered by the Raspberry Pi Pico with a Pico Display on top — just 2in long and 1in wide!
Close-up of a display reading "Partly Cloudy in Hong Kong" in cursive fontTwo hands holding a tiny display
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Fathom Information Design @fathom.info · 03/04/2026
We've been dreaming about hardware hacking for a few years and finally have the pieces we need. Ben, Karlie, and Andy put together about twenty of these gadgets. We did a dry run making weather displays in the studio yesterday, then got students set up at Ben’s information design class today.
Seven hardware gadgets together, all showing different colored text displaysKarlie fiddling with a gadget connected to a laptop, with a series of other gadgets laid out on the table next to herPeople sitting around a long table, smiling and chatting while using their laptopsHardware gadgets scattered across the table, showing different displays
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Fathom Information Design @fathom.info · 30/01/2026
We visited the Leventhal Map & Education Center last year and, after diving into everything from maps of dragons to geographic data visualizations, Karlie shared some thoughts on how map-making has transformed over time. You can find the blog post at fathom.info/notebook/260122
fathom.info
Here be Dragons | Fathom Information Design
Fathom's recent encounters with maps.
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Fathom Information Design @fathom.info · 12/01/2026
In the latest post on our blog, Katherine reflects on how we've been thinking and talking about generative AI in the studio. www.fathom.info/notebook/260...
fathom.info
A culture of work we believe in | Fathom Information Design
Katherine reflects on how we've been thinking and talking about generative AI in the studio.
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Fathom Information Design @fathom.info · 09/01/2026
Thanks, Jasper, for this detailed write-up about using Rowboat to look at Dutch vehicle registration data! It's always a nice boost to hear that the tool is useful and helps with doing this kind of exploration more easily. blog.kenteken.tv/2025/10/15/s...
blog.kenteken.tv
Snelle data analyses met tool Rowboat - Kenteken.TV blog
Met gratis tool Rowboat kan je geavanceerde analyses van RDW opendata gegevens maken. Kenteken.tv legt uit hoe je dat doet.
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Fathom Information Design @fathom.info · 19/12/2025
Thanks for using Rowboat in 2025! We appreciate everyone who's checked out the tool and shared it around. Look forward to more exciting updates in 2026! For our latest release notes, visit docs.rowboat.net/releases/202...
docs.rowboat.net
Rowboat | December 19, 2025
Documentation site for Rowboat.
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Fathom Information Design @fathom.info · 19/12/2025
We just pushed out our last big batch of Rowboat improvements and fixes before the end of the year. Fun fact: the most long-lived issue that we managed to close in this time was one that had been open for 2 years and 4 months. Feels good to finally get that one resolved!
Chart showing ranges of time between CreatedAt and ClosedAt. The longest line has the title "Auto Update" and lasted about 2 years and 4 months.
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Fathom Information Design @fathom.info · 19/12/2025
If you're feeling nostalgic, you can also revisit the last few years of Fathom holiday gifts here: www.fathom.info/holiday/ Wishing you all a joyful holiday season and a happy new year!
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Fathom Information Design @fathom.info · 19/12/2025
This year we celebrated the holidays by gathering together our favorite cozy winter treats and comfort meals to share with our friends and families. You can visit the charming animated cookbook Paul put together to read, print, and share our recipes: www.fathom.info/holiday/25/
Blocky representations of treats in a circle around the letter F (for Fathom). Four blocky representations of treats in a grid, with titles of dishes and names of people who contributed them.
Four blocky representations of treats in a grid, with titles of dishes and names of people who contributed them.
Four blocky representations of treats in a grid, with titles of dishes and names of people who contributed them.
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Fathom Information Design @fathom.info · 18/12/2025
As is now tradition, Ellory put together a year end recap to keep our avid fans updated on all we’ve been up to (both in and out of the office) in 2025. It’s now up on our blog if you would like to check it out: www.fathom.info/notebook/251... Wishing you all a safe and restful holiday season!
fathom.info
2025 at Fathom! | Fathom Information Design
2025 was a pretty mind-blowing year for our work in pandemic preparedness.
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Fathom Information Design @fathom.info · 15/12/2025
Last month, we shared that Sentinel, our collaboration with the Sabeti Lab and IGH, has been awarded the MacArthur Foundation 100&Change grant. We wrote a bit more about the news, reflecting on how this project came to be and how it continues to give us hope: www.fathom.info/notebook/251...
fathom.info
100&Change | Fathom Information Design
Sentinel, our long-time collaboration with the Sabeti Lab and IGH, has been awarded the MacArthur Foundation 100&Change grant.
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Fathom Information Design @fathom.info · 20/11/2025
We are beyond excited that our collaboration with the Sabeti Lab and IGH to develop an outbreak detection and response framework has been awarded the MacArthur Foundation 100&Change grant! You can check out the announcement here: www.macfound.org/press/press-...
Our collaborators, Christian and Pardis, standing in front of a large screen displaying our pathogen surveillance platform called Lookout. Katherine standing in front of a large screen displaying our pathogen surveillance platform called Lookout.  
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Fathom Information Design @fathom.info · 10/11/2025
We just launched a desktop version of Rowboat! * Open much larger files (offline!) * Own Desktop as a one-time purchase. * Use a double-clickable app that’s even faster than the web version. Browser or desktop, your data never leaves your machine. Read more: www.fathom.info/notebook/251...
The text "Rowboat Desktop" over a gradient background.
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Fathom Information Design @fathom.info · 20/10/2025
Following the completion of his summer 2024 internship, we now welcome Andy back as a full time member of the team.
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Fathom Information Design @fathom.info · 17/10/2025
Voitko sanoa uudelleen? Outside of the studio, Mark’s been studying Finnish and Paul’s learning type design. We’re delighted by these unique Finnish cheatsheets they designed using Paul’s work-in-progress font Lilliput. #typedesign #finnish #typography #languagelearning #liliput
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Fathom Information Design @fathom.info · 02/10/2025
Rowboat makes it easy to explore data by filtering down to different subsets. In this UFO sightings dataset (rowboat.net/f/uzu782mq), ppen the Find tool and filter the “datetime_time” column with “7/4” to see how many sightings happened on July 4th.
One of our favorite examples is a dataset of about 60k OkCupid profiles from the Bay Area in the early 2010s. It’s extremely fun to filter by column and try to find your “soulmate” (or “anti-soulmate”). You can always clear filters, or use undo/redo to flip between recent views.We’ve also made it easy to filter within a single column if a global search feels too broad.For instance, in this UFO sightings dataset, you might want to check how many sightings happened on July 4th—especially the ones described as “fireballs.”To do this, just open the Find tool (top right) and filter the “datetime_time” column with “7/4” to see every sighting that happened on the Fourth of July.
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Fathom Information Design @fathom.info · 23/09/2025
We recently made a round of visual updates to Rowboat to make it even easier to spot geographic regions where data is more highly concentrated. To get more out of your own geographic data, head to www.rowboat.net
Explore the coordinates of major world cities and instantly see the bright hotspots of densely populated areas.Locate regions of the world most likely to be impacted by volcanic activity.Get quick insights into global trade by plotting shipping routes of 500+ commercial vessels.
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Fathom Information Design @fathom.info · 17/09/2025
You can install the Chrome browser extension here: chromewebstore.google.com/detail/open-.... For those who don’t use Chrome — Firefox and Safari extensions should be arriving in the coming weeks!
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