Ditch the DSLR? The 200-year-old science of my new favorite camera (2^14 sub special!)

When I grew up, my mom was big on encouraging me to play with science toys.

She signed me up for enrichment classes at the University of Louisville in the summer, took me to museums, and bought me every sciencey toy that I showed any interest in. Relevant to today's video, I specifically remember making SunPrints with this same cyanotype process that AlphaPooenix demonstrates in today's video.

It wouldn't necessarily be easy for you and me to get ahold of the chemicals that he uses here - and likely not safe either - but you can certainly buy SunPrints paper without much trouble. Give it a try. 

In Space, No One Can Stop You From Welding

Cold welding is frickin' weird.

Richard Feynman wrote (or said in a lecture - I'm not sure which), "when the atoms in contact are all of the same kind, there is no way for the atoms to 'know' that they are in different pieces of copper. When there are other atoms, in the oxides and greases and more complicated thin layers of contaminants in between, the atoms 'know' when they are not on the same part."

But two metallic pieces that don't have those thin layers between them - primarily because they've been in space and rubbing against each other - can spontaneously weld together to become a single piece of metal.

It's possible to get that to happen on Earth, but it's not easy because of all the pesky oxygen we have around us all the time.

Metals are way weirder at the quantum level than we think they are, man.

Boil Water at Room Temperature with 50 ft. of Hose and a Stairway

AlphaPhoenix doesn't publish nearly enough videos, but the ones he does publish are really well done.

In this one he shows that with a tube, a bucket, some water, and a Nalgene bottle, he can boil water at room temperature.

Nicely done, sir.

How India's Perfumers Recreate The Smell Of Rain On Earth | Still Standing

That's a very complicated way to show off the fact that some components of flowers are soluble in water and others aren't and that some components are more volatile than others.

I see things like this, and I think about how much we rely on OSHA here in the States.

Sheesh...

Hydrophobic Patterns Make Spinning Water Drops

Well that's a new spin on things...

You're welcome.

In the above video, The Action Lab guy - apparently James Orgill, I just looked it up - makes a very simple soot-covered-toothpick-carved slide onto which he then drops tiny water drops which spontaneously start rotating because they're more attracted to the glass slide that's been revealed in the scratches than to the soot covering.

Kinda cool

Reindeer Eyes Turn Blue in the Winter

A golden eye from a summer reindeer (right) and a blue peeper from a winter reindeer (left) (source)

According to the Live Science article, reindeer eyes change color between the summer and winter months.

In the summer, the eyes are a golden, and in the winter they're blue.

This isn't due to an actual change in the color but rather because of a change in internal pressure within the eye that then compresses the collagen fibers in the reflective layer of the eye which then either reflects more light out of the eye - in the summer to protect against the long days of near total sunlight - or reflects more light within the eye - in the winter during the sun-less days and nights...which then makes the eyes change color to the observers.

Nature is phenomenal, and the fact that those sorts of genetic differences were selected for it stunning.