Hypercolor, the most 90s of colors

That ad is so 90s that it should've been parodied on the Bill Nye show.

Hypercolor - a brand of thermochromic clothing that changed color when it warmed up - was a very narrow slice of popular culture, lasting only about a year in the popular culture of the time.

The science behind the thermochromic dye was pretty cool, similar to that used in touch-sensitive thermometers, but the fabric and its dye wasn't built for long-term wear.

Sadly, though, after a handful of washes, or one laundering misstep in too-hot water, the magic powers faded and the shirt froze permanently into a purple-brown mushy color. (source)

If you want a hypercolor shirt, the easiest way is probably to make one of your own.

Caption this...

I've sat this that shade, maybe not at that specific stadium but certainly at tennis matches where I've followed the sun and moved with the shade. In fact, if we started school a week or two later in the year, I'd likely be doing it for a week in August at the Cincinnati Open.

Sadly the picture isn't quite right in that the second row would need to be eight seats wide compared to only two seats for the first row. Or maybe four seats compared to one with people sitting on each other's laps to represent the Pauli Exclusion Principle. 

All that would need the shadow line to be shallower, more of a 15 or 20 degree angle rather than the 45 that's in this picture.

But then the sun wouldn't be as bright and harsh when it was that low in the sky meaning that the people likely wouldn't be seeking out the sun as overtly and urgently.

So maybe it's best not to question this but rather to chuckle at it and move on.

And definitely don't go listening to the "Electron Configuration Polka" by Michael Offutt.

Exposing the Color Blind Glasses Scam

Take what this YouTuber has to say with a grain of salt. I will admit that I haven't researched and confirmed his claims, though I have watched all of the videos I'm posting today. I can say that they confirm something I've long been skeptical of: it seems unlikely that glorified sunglasses could produce colors in the eyes/brains of people who genetically can't see (or maybe can't differentiate) colors.

The enchroma glasses (and other, similar brands) seem to block a narrow band of colors leading to a greater differentiation between green and red meaning 'color blind' people can distinguish those colors more easily and can pass various 'color blind' tests like the classic numbers inside a circle. What the glasses seem incapable of, however, is actually letting those people see different colors that they inherently cannot see.

The science behind 'color blindness' is well explained here as is the science of what the glasses actually can do. The videos also explore common issues with scientific research - both conflicts of interest and confirmation biases as well as social pressure leading people to report results that may or may not actually be there. 

I've been captcha-ed.

See, it's funny because there's no way to know where the electrons likely are in the quantum mechanical model of the atom. The best we can do is predict where the electrons will likely be found.

So, I'm going to fail that captcha.

Light sucking flames look like magic

I've posted about this black fire on the blog before.

This one - from Steve Mould - doesn't add a whole lot new to the basic technique of shining a sodium vapor light on a methanol (stay safe out there, folks) flame that has been doped with sodium chloride. It does add in some more information on how the spectra are created and some info about enchroma glasses (more on them next week).

Can I lick it?

As Q-Tip once asked us...

Can I lick it?

Carl Wilhelm Scheele was likely the first person to isolate and prepare pure oxygen gas - though sadly for his historical reputation, not the first to publish his results.

Scheele also has gone down in history as a chemist known for tasting many of the chemicals that he experimented with in his laboratory.

So, can - or should - you lick the various elements? 

Some -the green ones - would probably be okay. Go ahead, for example, and lick a penny. It might be germy, but the metal itself isn't going to be a problem.

Other - the yellow ones - wouldn't be great, though they're not going to immediately kill you.

The red ones will likely immediately kill you or seriously harm you without much of a doubt.

The purple ones are radioactive and will kill you quickly.

So, can you lick it?

Maybe you can.