Awesome Light

Posy has a knack for spotlighting visually intriguing objects, and this time, he turns his lens on the humble light bulb. From vintage Edison filaments to bright halogen lamps to vibrant RGB LEDs, each gets its moment to shine through Posy’s thoughtful and artistic lens.

For the curious among us, SciShow host Hank Green is here to explain the wonders of fluorescence and phosphorescence. Along the way, you’ll learn why your teeth glow under black light, how different wavelengths of light travel, and how fluorescence has become so important in science and medicine.

João Paulo Gonçalves creates mind-blowing works of art that transform dramatically with the flick of a switch. He makes his dual-state art by precisely cutting and placing angled and curved blocks to produce the shadow of an entirely different image when illuminated from the center using a reflector bulb.

We’ve always been fascinated by the illuminated works of artist Darren “DariusTwin” Pearson. For his latest light painting animation, he captured hundreds of long-exposure images to give motion to a skateboard-riding skeleton. We can only assume this dude skinned more than his knees to end up like this.

We’ve always assumed that metal is so solid that light couldn’t possibly pass through it. But in this video from The Action Lab, scientist James Orgill shows off germanium, a unique metal that allows infrared light to shine through. We were also surprised to learn that glass blocks infrared light and you can see light through gold leaf.

Most analog clocks use physical hands to tell the time. The Hubble Traveller from One Balance replaces those hands with beams of light. The puck-shaped clock sits at the center of its face and projects skinny hands to indicate the hours and minutes. A mobile app adjusts its colors and time zone. It also comes in a less expensive single-hand version.

Dip My Car already painted a car in the world’s blackest paint. Now, there’s something even blacker than that – Musou Black Fabric Kiwami. This unique textile is made with special dyes and an arrangement of fibers that absorb 99.9% of visible light. James from The Action Lab got a spool of the fabric and turned his black car into a really black car.

The speed of light is 299,792,458 meters per second. If you could travel around the Earth at that speed, you could do a round trip in 0.13 seconds. Benjamin Granville of Airplane Mode shows us roughly how fast that is by using Microsoft Flight Simulator to fly all the way around the globe in just eight frames of video.

There’s a good reason that we use ultraviolet light to kill bacteria and other microbes. Journey to the Microcosmos provides a fascinating look at what happens to microbes when exposed to a bright UV light source, including their tendency to explode and disintegrate.

We normally think of water as being clear or maybe having a slight green or blue tint reflected from its surroundings. But Posy reveals a full rainbow of colors hiding in H20 in both steam and liquid forms when the temperature conditions and lighting are just right.

If you heat up a penny with a blow torch then lower it over a puddle of acetone, the reaction with the vapors will make the penny glow like a dim red lightbulb. NileRed shows off the reaction and points out that it must be done with a copper penny and not one with zinc or it will melt. And remember, chemistry is dangerous.

After building a mirrored room that lights up the entire space no matter where a light source is placed, James from The Action Lab wanted to see if he could build a mirrored room that won’t reflect light onto all of its walls. The trick is a space that uses curved mirrors with wraparound corners in specific locations.

Because of their positions at the top and bottom of the Earth, the North Pole and South Pole experience both the longest and shortest days of the year. This fascinating time-lapse animation shows how the top of our planet goes from 24 hours of sunlight a day in the summertime to complete darkness in the winter.

Real laser beams don’t behave like they do in science fiction. Instead of firing in short blasts, they appear as a single coherent beam of light. The Action Lab shows a simple way to achieve the sci-fi effect in camera using a spinning fan blade and by taking advantage of a digital camera’s rolling shutter effect.

French art collective Scale created this hypnotic mechanical light show that uses computer-controlled motors to rotate 48 individual light bars. The installation, designed for the Constellations festival at Cloître des Récollets is interactive, allowing the public to control the display’s movements, light, and sound.

Improve your visibility and personal safety at night with these weather-resistant LED tags that clip onto clothes, bags, and shoes using magnets. Each one has four bright LEDs, which can light up in solid or flashing modes. They last for up to 70 hours between battery changes.