From Applied Science. How to make photographs using plant leaves: the technique, examples, f/0.5 camera lens construction, and tips & tricks that I learned along the way. Inspiration for this project came from a 1970’s video made by The Royal Institution: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2JTiAASdyw Starch formation refs: https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdf/10.1086/329993 https://www.ars.usda.gov/ARSUserFiles/50820500/GPRG/2022PulicationsandSummaries/2022_Photosynthetic%20responses%20of%20greenhouse%20ornamentals%20to%20interaction%20of%20irradiance%20CO2%20and%20temperature.pdf Video describing inkjet printed photomasks: https://youtu.be/bR9EN3kUlfg?si=k9RU6EwM5-pKx2tr&t=643 A different…

From Applied Science. I show a "DIY" chemical color-based method to determine the amount of lead in water, and then use the method to measure the amount of lead extracted from various types of lead crystal glassware. Skip to 27:05 to see the detailed results Code, analysis, raw data, more references: https://github.com/benkrasnow/LeadCrystal Supercon 2022 talk:…

From Applied Science. This unusual sheet metal is made of hundreds of nano scale layers of aluminum and nickel. A spark initiates a self-propagating reaction that creates NiAl compound, and lots of heat! This material is used to solder items so fast that the base material doesn’t have time to draw heat away from the…

From Applied Science. I describe an old project in which a few friends and I designed an RFID tag that fits into a magnetic stir bar and measures temperature wirelessly. We decided to open-source the project, and you can see the PCB design and tag firmware at the github repo below. I don’t think I…

From Applied Science. How to build and test an NQR spectrometer, which is similar to MRI, but uses no magnets. NQR frequencies are unique among all tested compounds, so detecting a resonance indicates a near certainty that a specific chemical is present. Tektronix 2-series oscilloscope: https://www.tek.com/en/products/oscilloscopes/2-series-mso Video capture was done via VNC client Zeeman effect…

From Applied Science. How to make etched metal parts. -All of the highest quality parts that I made went to the customer, but edge quality and photoresist adhesion is still a problem. -The photomask dark areas can be expanded, and then the part etched for a longer amount of time to make the edges more…

From Applied Science. High-speed X-ray video captured with a Dectris photon-counting detector. I show how the process works and how this detector is different than normal camera detectors. https://www.dectris.com/ https://media.dectris.com/Technical_Specification_PILATUS_100K-S_V1_8.pdf Mexican jumping beans: https://www.amazingbeans.com/ Geiger counter: https://mightyohm.com/blog/products/geiger-counter/ X-ray timelapse video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-FHbHoiwNk ImageJ image format converter: https://imagej.nih.gov/ij/ (the NIH’s SSL cert expired?) Flipping through images fast…

From Applied Science. An orange plasma display will retain an image caused by incident near-UV light. This is an interesting visual combination of photoelectric, hot carrier injection, plasma, and charge trapping effects. Correction: The orange display is running at 700Hz, 130V in the video. Also, the laser emits no 365nm light. I measured some as…

From Applied Science. How to chemically synthesize silver nanoparticles, then grow them into triangular nanoprisms with light from a variety of LEDs. Each color LED creates a different size nanoprism, which has its own characteristic color. CMDITR video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agD5jfXua-o Multispectral LED driver on Github: https://github.com/benkrasnow/MultiSpectLED Chemicals sourced from Amazon/eBay LR-1 spectrometer: https://www.aseq-instruments.com/LR1.html Micropipette set: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06XJY82N3/…

From Applied Science. I synthesized olestra from biodiesel, sugar, and soap with a sodium metal catalyst. I also describe some of the history of olestra’s development. Procedure that I used (Example 1) https://patents.google.com/patent/US3963699A/en Other resources: https://patents.google.com/patent/US20060047109A1/en https://patents.google.com/patent/US4611055A/en https://sci-hub.se/https://doi.org/10.1021/ed068p476 Biodiesel: https://www.e-education.psu.edu/egee439/node/684 https://extension.okstate.edu/fact-sheets/biodiesel-production-techniques.html https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3anau83Qxt4 Epogee fat substitute: https://www.epogee.com/the-technology https://healthsmartfoods.com/products/sweet-nothings-low-fat-chocolate-covered-caramel Potassium oleate soap synthesis: https://lipidlibrary.aocs.org/documents/LipidsLibrary/Book%20II_ch03.pdf Studies on gastro…

From Applied Science. I repaired a large digital x-ray detector and used it to record timelapse and stop-motion animations of plants, a clock, and a camera lens. Applied Science X-ray backscatter imaging system: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7ldYhzKAp4 Applied Science CT scanner: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hF3V-GHiJ78 Geiger counter: https://mightyohm.com/blog/products/geiger-counter/ Linistepper motor driver: http://www.massmind.org/techref/io/stepper/linistep/lini_use.htm Potassium iodide: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01JKJWXBK GE Rhythm user guide: https://www.bakerhughesds.com/sites/g/files/cozyhq596/files/2018-07/rhythm_rt_manual_english_rev_e.pdf Octave…

From Applied Science. Thermal stress cracking can be completely avoided by CO2 laser cutting thin alumina sheets underwater. I also show how to formulate and apply silver paste, then sinter in a kiln to produce double-sided ceramic printed circuit boards with conductive vias. 60W CW CO2 laser at 80% power. 10mm/sec. Standard lens focal length…

From Applied Science. An explanation and demo of atomic layer deposition (ALD) of copper metal on glass. Precursors are copper(I) chloride and hydrogen, processed in a hot-wall tube quartz tube furnace. 10 torr operating pressure 500 sccm argon sweep/purge gas constantly flowing 75 sccm CuCl argon pulse gas (17 seconds including flow controller lag) 100…

From Applied Science. It’s been a very fun 10 years, and there’s more to come! Ask your questions in the comments (as always). Liquid oxygen BBQ – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bjvj5FjUPE Fondant cake making – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IhibizyrtU Scanning Electron Microscope – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdjYVF4a6iU Transcranial magnetic Stimulation – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_olmdAQx5s Supercritical CO2 chamber – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gCTKteN5Y4 LED in a contact lens – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHECpEhJdB8…

From Applied Science. "200 Calories" on a nutrition label doesn’t describe the total flammable caloric content. I explore the differences between digestible and flammable calories using a homemade calorimeter with glass windows. Pressure sensor: https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/te-connectivity-measurement-specialties/M5842-000005-10KPG/7592854 Schedule 160 pipe on McMaster: https://www.mcmaster.com/7733K259/ 32 ga nichrome wire: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07DL4DSWD/ Power supply (used for ignition wire): https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07SS77N7K/ Keithley 6.5…