Awesome The Action Lab

The Action Lab shows off the unusual optical properties of Ulexite, a mineral that looks semi-opaque but shows objects it’s placed on top of. Also known as “television stone,” the rock transfers light through tiny tubes that act like organic fiber optics. You can find chunks of the stuff on Etsy if you want to try it yourself.

When is a candle not really a candle? When it’s a high-voltage plasma flame like the one shown here. James from The Action Lab shows how an ultra-high-frequency solid-state Tesla coil can produce an intensely hot flame that can’t be blown out and that can even melt steel.

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.

If you stand under an umbrella-shaped fountain, you can stay dry from the water over your head. But the idea of an umbrella made out of water seems ridiculous. James from The Action Lab tested the idea to see if the laminar flow of water coming from the umbrella would deflect raindrops away, or if they’d still get wet.

During a visit to 3M’s Innovation Center, James from The Action Lab checked out two very different rooms they use to test sound waves. The first is an anechoic chamber that deadens sound reflections, while the reverberation chamber is designed to reflect sounds. Then, he tested various sounds to see how differently they behave in each space.

Common sense tells us that if you drop a rubber ball, it will never bounce higher than you dropped it from unless you add energy by throwing it. But at first glance, the ball that The Action Lab shows in this clip defies the laws of physics. Of course, it doesn’t really, but it’s a neat trick.

There are countless videos on the Internet that claim to demonstrate machines that can generate their own energy and operate in perpetuity. Don’t believe the hype. In this video from The Action Lab, he shows off one such trick, which uses hidden electromagnets to make a sphere look like it’s spinning on its own.

James from The Action Lab shows off a physics demonstration that had us scratching our heads at first. While it appears that the ball bearing inside of this glass beaker will spin forever without adding energy, there’s a perfectly rational explanation of what’s going on. The Egg of Columbus demo is pretty neat too.

We’ve all seen the old baking soda and vinegar volcano experiment at some point. The Action Lab shows off a far more energetic and long-lasting mini volcano, but it requires the use of a toxic chemical that needs to be handles very carefully.

Unless you’re a vampire, a mirror will reflect your face when you look at it. But The Action Lab’s unique mirror is a bit different. It uses a liquid crystal panel to block out the mirror and an expression recognition app that detects if its user isn’t smiling. We like the creative approach he came up with for the triggering system.

Now that The Action Lab has painted a room in the blackest and glowing-ist paints, he’s renovated his temporary space again. This time, he covered its walls, ceiling, and floor entirely with mirrors. Despite the reflections seeming infinite, he explains how they eventually drop off.

Musou Black is said the be the blackest paint you can buy at the moment, absorbing almost all visible light. After painting some small objects with the super-dark stuff, The Action Lab created a room just so he could paint it entirely black. The Rolling Stones would be proud.