Embalming Fruit Slices Update

[continuation from here]

Lemon and lime slices treated in glycerin for one week

A week's immersion in glycerin changes a fruit. I observed some crenation and some color fading -- unacceptable for Plastic Realities. I already knew that raw, untreated fruit is incompatible with my resin, so my next thought was to soak them in glycerin just long enough to dehydrate the surface. I wanted to press forward with some resin casting experiments and so I set up a series of comparative experiments: raw, untreated fruit; 1 hour-treated fruit, and the 1-week treated fruit. I should know the results by morning.

Embalming Fruit Slices

Fruit slice immersed in glycerin.

I'm experimenting with embalming fruit slices. I've been unhappy with using plastic fake fruit as garnishes in my plastic beverages. I've tried embedding raw untreated fruit in the resin, but the water content seems to screw things up. I read online about some tricks that florists use to preserve flowers and leaves -- contact with glycerin. If you dip the stems of flowers or leaves in glycerin, it displaces the water and preserves the look and feel of the flowers. My hypothesis is that the glycerin will displace most of the water in the fruit slice w/o compromising the look and appearance, and being closer chemically to the plastic, will be more compatible. I'm not so much worried about subsequent decomposition when one of these is embedded in plastic -- it's an anaerobic environment. Plus glycerol is a cheap and nontoxic substance to work with and to dispose of.

Wish me luck!

Coin tossing quantum experiments

"Quantum weirdness is hard for humans to grasp, so researchers wrote a program to suggest experimental setups."

The notoriously counterintuitive features of quantum mechanics make it hard to design experiments to study the quantum fundamentals and to develop quantum computing and quantum cryptography. So a team of researchers has developed an algorithm for combining the building blocks of quantum optics experiments, such as beam splitters and mirrors, to achieve a particular goal, such as a certain photonic quantum state. The experimental arrangements generated so far are ones the researchers say they were unlikely to have thought of themselves, and some work in ways that are hard to understand.

Experiments in quantum optics, whether for fundamental or practical ends, tend to use a rather limited set of components to manipulate the quantum states of photons. Beam splitters can send laser light along two different paths with certain probabilities and generate so-called superposition states in which photons seem to take two paths at once. Nonlinear crystals generate pairs of quantum-connected (entangled) photons, and the usual mirrors and lenses guide laser beams.

The algorithm designed by Anton Zeilinger of the University of Vienna and his co-workers, called Melvin, takes elements like these and shuffles them to find an experimental arrangement that will produce specified quantum properties in the photon beams. For example, many experiments require entanglement, where two photons have some property, such as polarization or angular momentum, that is correlated—measuring the value for one photon tells you the value for the other. Researchers might also want to manipulate single photons. (read more)

"Rovers Disguised as Baby Penguins Can Quietly Infiltrate Penguin Colonies"

"Penguins, like many animals, are freaked out by people. Even if those people are well-intending researchers, the birds' heartbeats race when humans approach. So a team of scientists from the University of Strasbourg decided to design a monitoring method that wouldn't completely terrorize their research subjects, Wired reports."

 

A robot, the researchers figured, might be less threatening than a living, breathing, potentially predatory human. They equipped 24 king penguins in Antarctica with external heart rate monitors. The next day, they sent a remote-controlled rover into the penguin colony. They observed the birds from more than 650 feet away, Wired describes, and noted that their heart rates were significantly less fluttery and stabilized more quickly than when humans approached the animals. The penguins also allowed the rover to get closer to them before moving away from their nest than they would a human.

The researchers realized they were on to something—but a key ingredient was missing. What if they dressed the robot up to look like a baby penguin? Pursuing this hunch, they outfitted the rover with a big ball of fluff and a little penguin head and arms. The results were even better. The penguin chicks allowed the rover to join them in a creche (basically a big gathering of adorable baby animals that allows adults to keep an eye on them). They even tried to communicate with the rover.

"They were very disappointed when there was no answer," the researchers told the Associated Press. "Next time we will have a rover playing songs."

"What Happens When You Bake Ben & Jerry's Cookie Dough Ice Cream?"

"It was a surprisingly sober night when, halfway through a pint of delicious Ben & Jerry’s Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, the thought struck me: sure, this was tasty and all, but what would a Ben & Jerry’s cookie actually taste like? Would the dough even bake into a cookie? Or had B & J created some sort of ice cream-exclusive cookie wonderfood, like Flubber with sugar, that thrives in cold and heat without changing form?"

"I had to find out." (read what happened next)

Primordial Soup

Our always-brilliant friend El Pollo Raylan wrote in his most recent post:

Lastly, Lem posted an intriguing story about life on other planets. I think the unspoken question is, "but did they have the spark of life?"  I'm not being creationist here. The famous Miller-Urey Experiment was anything but that.

This reminded me of one of my most favorite little digressions from one of my favorite people, the great writer, cook and personality Julia Child. This video, produced for a 1970's exhibit at the National Air and Space Museum called "Life in the Universe", features Child cooking up Miller & Urey's (and Cyril Ponnamperuma's) recipe for Primordial Soup.

Why Six Seconds?

"GE recently held a contest via the Vine app asking how much science can you fit into six seconds?"

On August 15th, GE launched the world's first #6SecondScience Fair, a week-long celebration of science on Vine. By the time the week ended, over 600 projects had been submitted.



How Much Science Can You Fit Into 6 Seconds? - GE

Crack Emcee fan qmqz commented...

Unfortunately, some of the townspeople here seem to have no concept of the wonders of science. Some of them even claim my little inventions are magical! Such poppycock! There is no such thing as magic!

Via It's Okay To Be Smart