Collaborate Disseminate
Unlike most cutting lasers, femtosecond lasers don’t vaporize materials; rather, they produce such short, intense bursts of light that the affected region is ablated without having the chance to heat …read more Continue reading Cross-Sectioning Crickets with a Femtosecond Laser
In 1675, while transporting a barometer by night, the astronomer Jean Picard noticed a glow inside its glass tube, just above the mercury. As the mercury sloshed and splashed across …read more Continue reading A Sloshing-Mercury-Powered Neon Light
Preservationists usually take great care to prevent fungi from appearing the world of art, but in the case of [Kexin Wang]’s Funguy project, the fungus itself is the art. It …read more Continue reading Printing Fungal Art with Laser Control
Ceramic 3D printers, despite using the same fundamental mechanism as standard FDM printers, are much harder to find. Part of this comes down to the material properties of fired ceramics …read more Continue reading Clay Extruder Enables Printable Pottery
Unlike almost every other kind of microscope, atomic-force microscopes (AFMs) don’t use any kind of optical beam to image their subjects. Instead, they physically detect the subject’s surface with a …read more Continue reading Seeing Bacteria, Nanoprisms, and More with an Atomic Force Microscope
When light reflects off a surface, not all of it reflects off at the same wavelength; some photons impart a portion of their energy to raising the vibrational energy of …read more Continue reading 2026 Frikkin Lasers Challenge: A 3D-Printed Raman Spectrometer
Laser diodes are convenient light sources, but for precise optical work their often-elliptical beam profile leaves something to be desired. One way to get around this is to couple the …read more Continue reading Building a Fiber-Coupled Laser Source for Precision Optics
Every experienced machinist knows the value of taking regular measurements. If one works carefully and checks dimensions frequently, it’s possible to make a part much more precise than could be …read more Continue reading Building a Micrometer-Level Displacement Sensor with 3D Printed Parts
There are as almost as many kinds of coffee as there are of coffee drinkers, with each method for preparing the beverage appealing to a different kind of palate: moka …read more Continue reading Brewing Espresso with Ultrasonic Assistance
Although the basic principle of radio direction finding is easy to understand (measure the phase difference between different antennas, then calculate the angle of arrival from this difference), the radio …read more Continue reading Seeing the World in Radio Waves with the QuadRF