Photosynthesis photography: Making images with living plant leaves

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 technique to make leaf prints: https://www.alternativephotography.com/chlorophyll-prints/

Video from Alpha Phoenix on making photos with cyanotype: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewQQX3fxQKk&t=85s

Ray optics simulator: https://phydemo.app/ray-optics/

Giant tweezers: https://www.amazon.com/Stainless-Tweezers-Anti-slip-Aquascape-Maintenance/dp/B07LDLWJMM/

Anhydrous ethanol: https://www.extractohol.net/1gal-200-proof-pure-food-grade-ethyl-alcohol

Hanging basket geranium plant: https://www.lowes.com/pd/2-Gallon-Multicolor-Geranium-in-Hanging-Basket-L5450/1000151713

Methanol toxicity: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methanol_toxicity https://sci-hub.se/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ccc.2012.07.002  Skin absorption in a quantity high enough to be a problem is rare, according to this.

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Measuring the amount of lead (Pb) consumed when drinking from lead crystal glassware. Is it safe?

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 

Average daily lead consumption: 50ug in early 1980s, about 2/3 of this came from food and water https://openlibrary.org/works/OL18340799W/Food_contamination_from_environmental_sources?edition=unset0000unse_z0t6 

The FDA established a maximum daily intake for Pb called the Interim Reference Level (IRL). The IRL for children and adults is 3 μg/day and 12.5 μg/day, respectively. In 2022, FDA tightened its Interim Reference Levels (IRLs) for lead to 2.2 µg/day for children and 8.8 µg/day for females of childbearing age—a drop of 27% from the original IRLs it established in 2018. 

(2011) The estimated average daily dietary exposure of the French population to lead was 18 μg for adults aged 15 years or more https://apps.who.int/food-additives-contaminants-jecfa-database/Home/Chemical/3511 

ChatGPT on cloudy lead acetate solutions https://chat.openai.com/share/b24593ea-e467-4c41-ac79-55a4c0546a63 

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Multi-layer reactive foil: no fuel, no oxygen, tons of heat

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 joint. The technical data sheet indicates that this process is fluxless, and I suspect trying to include flux would cause rapid gas expansion that would blow the solder joint apart. I'm not sure how the solder wets the surface without flux. 

https://sci-hub.se/10.1063/1.1629390 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nickel_aluminide 

https://www.indium.com/products/nanofoil/#documents 

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Temperature-sensing RFID tag in magnetic stir bar

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 have the firmware for the base station, unfortunately.

https://www.ti.com/product/TMS37157

https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/texas-instruments/EZ430-TMS37157/2183733

https://github.com/benkrasnow/Temperature_sensing_stirbar

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Identify chemicals with radio frequencies - Nuclear Quadrupole Resonance (MRI without magnets)

 

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 shifting optical spectral lines: https://youtu.be/JV4Fk3VNZqs?t=74

Atomic clock calibration using Zeeman effect: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTy1kY_wtsY

W2AEW's RF tutorial on quarter wave transmission lines: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1BAq0KxIdc

Water deflected by electric field: https://youtu.be/NjLJ77IuBdM?t=468

Litz wire only helpful between 50KHz and 1.5MHz - https://youtu.be/FUCRB9UdfUg?t=2010

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Q/A

Why use vacuum variable capacitors? The parallel LC circuit develops well over 1000 volts during transmit, and they are much easier to finely adjust over a large range.

I've spent quite a few hours making this work since late last year.  I failed to detect a signal from urea, which burned dozens of hours.  Switching to NaNO2 suddenly produced a huge signal.

NQR calculations spreadsheet - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1pkWlgvEXlANemZt3DR1J5g59S7hsejbvs995Y4FRsl0/edit?usp=sharing

NQR references (many!) : https://docs.google.com/document/d/1XoNUhFceH38nSjAFZoxglNiZlUzn6QMxa6CYTyAM92c/edit?usp=sharing