Spectrum Scientifics Blog

Its a slow day, being two days before our nation’s birthday, so we will keep things simple with this video of Poalrizing Film and what it does.

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Filed under: Optics, Physics
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Very recently, we had a customer in the store who was looking for a high power hand magnifier. Not a problem, as we carry a few models that can get almost as high as hand magnifiers can take a person. But when asked what level of magnification they were looking for, they replied: “30X or more”. This made us do a double-take, as hand lenses just don’t go that high.

To understand this, you have to realize that 30x is well into the inspection microscope range. Heck even Compound Microscopes start at 40X magnification as their low setting.

Hand-held magnifiers, however are not optical systems like microscopes. They are usually a single, doublet or triplet lens acting as a single optical lens, and when using a simple lens as a magnifier there are certain optical rules to be obeyed.

The first is that the focal length (the point from the edge of the lens where light coming through the lens concentrates) determines the magnification of a lens. The shorter the focal length, the higher the power of the lens.

“So no problem” you might think “just make lenses with shorter focal lengths”. Well here is where the laws of optics start to give you grief. You see, as you shorten the focal length of a lens, its curvature must increase. Thus, as you get shorter and shorter focal lengths, the edge of the lens starts to look more and more like a portion of a glass ball. This cause a lot of distortion around the edges of the lens when you look through it. You can hep this situation a bit by using doublets or triplets (two or three lenses cemented together), but even they have limits.

Even more limiting is that as you shorten the focal length you must also decrease the size, or diameter of the lens. This means that as you get higher magnification out of a lens, it starts to become more and more like looking through a pinhole!

This is why most honest magnifier makers are careful about their magnification listings A hand reading lens usually is in the 2-4X range, and specialty magnifiers for people with severe eye problems are in the 5-8x range. At 10X you are dealing with close-up inspection devices for jewelry, botany, or other close up work. The maximum these hand held magnifiers can really get is about 20X. Even then the lens is only about 8mm across and has to be practically on top of the thing being viewed.

But lately, there has been a rather insidious trend of imported lenses coming in with rather ‘generous’ magnification listings on the box or the product itself. If you go to Amazon.com and search for “30X Loupe” you will come up with many results.

And they are all lies.

This isn’t some retailer stretching the truth about the magnification, this is a lie right on the product. Several of these magnifiers say “30X x 21mm”, which means 30X magnification with 21mm diameter lens. THAT IS JUST NOT PHYSICALLY POSSIBLE. A lens 21mm in diameter is unlikely to produce anything close to 30X, and is more likely to be 7X or so.

The frustrating part of this is that some of the magnifiers are actually very good products! At Spectrum we carry a couple of very nice magnifiers, such as this illuminated tabletop magnifier. While this is a great product, the box states incorrectly several times that the lens provides 5x power. Measurements and optics math suggest this is not true and is closer to 3.5X at best. This is still an excellent instrument, but it is sullied by the fact that we must correct the manufacturer’s over-optimistic specs.

This reminds us of the box packaging on cheap telescopes that tries to sell the telescope via very unlikely super-high magnifications (660X!!! 800X!!! on a 50mm telescope) that impress people while more honest manufacturers suffer for telling the truth. Unfortunately, as long as there are sellers out there that don’t know enough or don’t care these fake magnifications will continue to be used to impress folks.

Fortunately for us our customer went away happy and as one of them stated “I think we learned something today”. They had been told about getting these ‘higher power magnifiers’, but didn’t know the truth about them. That’s what we strive for.

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Filed under: Magnifiers, Optics
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Spectrum has just added Eco-Spheres to its list of products. Ecospheres are totally enclosed ecosystem in a small glass bulb or pod.

The Ecospheres contain water (naturally), algae, animal life (shrimp), gravel and lots of microorganisms needed for life. The visible plants are gorgonia, a simple, stick-like plant that is actually not alive and not part of the ecosystem. But they do provide surfaces for the algae to live on.

Light produces algae, which in turn provides food & oxygen for the shrimp. The shrimp provide carbon dioxide and waste products that produce bacteria that feeds the algea (and produces more algea.

These shrimp are the primary focus of the Ecosphere, they skitter about, feeding themselves from the growing plant. They may breed, but this is uncommon. Due to the sealed nature of the Ecosphere they do not overpopulate. You don’t need to feed them, and the sphere never needs cleaning!

Your Ecosphere needs light, but it should be indirect sunlight or artificial light. The Ecosphere should never be put in direct sunlight, because it will cause the algae to overgrow and kill the shrimp.

Ecospheres hold up for a long time, but they do have a life-span. Typically an Ecosphere lasts over 2 years. After that they may need a ‘recharge’ which is done by sending the Ecosphere back to the manufacturer. This is much less expensive then buying a new Ecosphere. Some Ecospheres have been known to last 7 years or longer without a recharge.

Ecospheres come a in variety of sizes, from the small 4″ sphere: to the Extra-Large 9″ Sphere. There are also small pods and large pods to choose from for those who prefer a different shape. Filling out the sizes are the Large (6-1/2″) and Medium (5″) EcoSpheres.

Ecospheres are not just biology and ecology. They also are great art! They look gorgeous on a desktop or mantlepiece. Get one today for your home, office, or classroom.

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Filed under: Biology, Ecology
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As part of our campaign to add more affordable lab equipment, we have added four new great products: Two research autoclaves, and two temperature controlled shakers!

Our autoclaves are the Bioclave Mini-Autoclave, which has an 8 Liter chamber, is fully automatic, and has a small labtop footprint. Its also a cute little model:

The Bioclave’s mini autoclave has a big brother, the Bioclave 16L Autoclave!
It has a much larger capacity (16L), but doesn’t increase the shelf footprint all that much!

Expanding on that, Spectrum has also added the Multi-Therm Shaker. Its a lab shaker that also can both heat and cool samples. No more do you have to try and fit a shaker awkwardly inside an incubator, or try to put ice on top of a shaker. just set the temperature and let it do its thing. A variety of blocks let you pick what kind of vial or test tube you want to use. The temp range goes from -20C all the way up to 100C!

If you are more economically minded, or just don’t need the cooling aspect, there is also a version that only heats the samples.

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Filed under: Biology, Chemistry, Laboratory
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After some delays, and a launch conflict with STS 127, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter/Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite combo spacecraft will be launching today at 5:12 PM, EST.

The LRO/LCROSS is a combo spacecraft: the LRO is set to orbit the Moon at a height of 50km (31 miles). While it orbits it will Map the surface of the Moon for the first time since the Apollo missions. It will also use several sensors to find good landing locations for future manned missions to the Moon.

LCROSS is an impact probe. It will break off the spacecraft in two parts. One will impact the polar region of the moon, kicking up moon debris. The second part will fly through the debris, gathering data, and then will impact the Moon as well.

The debris plumes should be impressive, NASA declares that it may be visible in telescopes 10-12″ in diameter.

LCROSS will try to locate water, organic compounds, and anything else that has been theorized about the area underneath the lunar surface.

You can visit the LRO/LCROSS on Facebook for updates.

NASA TV Coverage begins at 2PM EST

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Filed under: Astronomy, NASA
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It seems that 14 year olds are in the news this week, and mostly for good reasons. One 14 year old boy in Germany was in the news claiming he was hit with a meteorite, which if true would make him the first person to be struck by a meteor since the late 50’s. Unfortunately, there are some problems with the story, at least as how the media presents it. Such as the speed of the meteorite, the damage it would do, and so on. It might be the case that the core of the story is true, but the details have been messed up through the reporting.

Much more based in reality is the story of Caroline Moore, a 14 year old amateur astronomer from upstate New York, who discovered a very rare supernova. Using just an amateur astronomer’s telescope, Caroline was able to find this cosmic wonder.

Caroline Moore’s tale is the inspirational one since it once again demonstrates that in the world of astronomy, the amateurs can actually discover and do more than the professionals. See, most professional astronomers spend a lot of time studying various celestial objects but rarely get the chance to go out and actually look at them. Caroline Moore’s telescope is described as ‘relatively small’ which is pretty undefined, but could mean anything from a 4 inch refractor, to an 8 inch dobsonain, to a 12 inch Cassegrain. All we know is that it is probably a telescope you could also buy. Her story is not unique, most comets are discovered and named after the amateur astronomers who find them (Hale-Bopp among many others). Many new asteroids are also discovered each year by amateurs as well, who get the rights to give them their semi-official nickname.

Think about what you could find!

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Filed under: Astronomy
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Well, it seems that scientists have gone and discovered Element-112. Like most elements in this part of the periodic table it is super-heavy, completely artificial, and has a lifespan on the order of milliseconds.

Of course, it also means that our periodic table posters are obsolete.

OK, that’s not true, most periodic table posters haven’t gone above element 103 for some time. The additional elements mess up the layout.

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Filed under: Chemistry, Physics
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Everyone loves Chemistry Sets but they almost always have one big problem: The recommended age is at least 10 years and older. What are the children and parents of children still in the single digit years to do?

The answer comes in BeAmazing’s Lab-in-a-Bag. An ingenious way to present simple and fun chemistry experiments to younger kids. Two of the sets we carry are aimed at children age 8+, but the third is excellent for ages 4-8! The sets are simple, safe, and appeal to kids wanting to do chemistry because the kits are assembled in plastic test tubes with a convenient plastic test tube rack!

First up is Lab-in-a-bag Test Tube Wonders:

Test Tube Wonders starts with some Insta-Snow but then moves on to let kids play with waterproof sand not dissimilar to our Space Sand, Energy Beads, a squishy growing dinosaur, and growing jelly cubes!

Test Tube Adventures picks up where Test Tube Wonders left off:

With this set kids learn to play with Touchable Bubbles, make a bouncing ball, not unlike out Bouncing Ball Factory (but not as many balls made), make Insta-Worms and write with invisible ink.

Finally, for the younger set (age 4-8) we have the Lab-in-a-bag Blast of Color.

As the name implies, this kit is all about color chemistry. Kids make colored crystals, colored snow, a rainbow tube, color beads and learn the basics of science in the bargain! Great fun for curious little hands!

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Filed under: Chemistry
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The planet Mars has a yearly orbit about 1.5 months shy of two Earth years. This means that a little over every two years Mars reaches what is called opposition in the night sky, where Earth and Mars are at their closest. This is usually the best time for viewing.

In the summer of 2003, Mars reached its closest opposition in over 50,000 years. Many announcements were sent out about it and it was considered a major astronomical event.

Unfortunately, someone took one of the more hyped-up emails announcing the 2003 opposition, read that opposition happens every 2 years and decided to send it out again for the summers of 2005, 2007, and now 2009. Mars has become spam email.

You may have gotten this email. It is the 2003 email verbatim, with the claims that Mars will be at its closest in 50,000 years, etc. you may have even sent it on to others.

Its not true.

First of all, there will be no opposition in 2009. The next Martian opposition happens in January of 2010.

Second of all, the original email was, shall we say, a bit hyperbolic. The email claims that Mars (in 2003) would appear ‘as big as the Moon’. There are other less spectacular false claims made in the email as well.

We’ve gotten queries about this email as we head into summer and it makes it biannual rounds, we are happy to inform folks about the truth of the matter. But if you see this email, please do not forward it. Let it die.

Let’s hope that for 2011, we do not see this email making the rounds again.

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Filed under: Astronomy
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We’ve shown other folks videos of the Fun Fly Stick in action, but we finally got around to making our own version. It shows a few more tricks the Fun Fly Stick can do, such as lift hair or make a soda can roll!

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Filed under: Oddness, Physics, electricity
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