[HN Gopher] A sea of sparks: Seeing radioactivity
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A sea of sparks: Seeing radioactivity
Author : maurycyz
Score : 40 points
Date : 2026-03-30 18:34 UTC (4 hours ago)
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| dvh wrote:
| I tried the same with bananas. Got nothing.
| kergonath wrote:
| Potassium-40 is not an alpha emitter.
| fecal_henge wrote:
| Maybe he used banana as the scintillator.
| DetroitThrow wrote:
| That's unrelated. He's been diligently substituting bananas
| in many experiments to mostly disappointment.
| onraglanroad wrote:
| ...but occasional delight.
| marginalia_nu wrote:
| The banhattan project has been a fiasco.
|
| Chicago Peel 1 accomplished fission of fruit flies, which
| we felt was promising.
|
| The subsequent banana nuclear bomb tests have been an
| unmitigated disaster. There are so many damn bananas in and
| around the bikini atolls, just nothing. Not even a fizzle.
| Mojave is littered with peels. Oppenheimer slipped and
| broke his leg.
|
| Rumors are the Soviets are using avocados. Maybe that is
| the key. We are now constructing a demon core from an
| avocado split lengthwise.
| selimthegrim wrote:
| This puts Raffi in a whole new light. Also maybe the
| Banana ball team are refugee all-stars.
| thadt wrote:
| Bananas are like XML that way. If you're not getting the
| results you want, you're just not using enough of them.
| lukasschwab wrote:
| You won't make one at home, but cloud chambers[^1] reveal
| individual alpha particle tracks.
|
| There's one in the Musee des Arts et Metiers in Paris -- blew my
| mind!
|
| [^1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_chamber
|
| Edit: turns out people make these at home _all the time._ Sick!
| lukan wrote:
| Well, google for "DIY cloud chamber" did result in quite some
| entries. Apart from youtube channels, with the first entry a
| guide from CERN:
|
| https://home.cern/news/news/experiments/how-make-your-own-cl...
| alnwlsn wrote:
| This can be done at home with a little effort. Less effort if
| you can get dry ice easily.
|
| https://hackaday.com/2019/01/13/see-the-radioactive-world-wi...
| Yenrabbit wrote:
| You can easily make them at home (source, I did last weekend!).
|
| - Dry ice (mine came from something shipped cold)
|
| - Dark piece of metal (I used a 3D printer hot bed) on top of
| dry ice to get cold
|
| - IPA vapour (I poured some on a shop towel)
|
| - Some transparent container to house it all - I found a glass
| display cube on the side of the road, fish tanks or Tupperware
| also work.
|
| - Torch or something to provide side lighting
|
| Very cool to see evidence of the particles zooming around us,
| can highly recommend.
| r2_pilot wrote:
| If you haven't experienced a spinthariscope, I can highly
| recommend it. I bought one as a Christmas present for a buddy and
| we both enjoy its demonstration of radioactivity.
| jcims wrote:
| UnitedNuclear has these and a bunch of other interesting
| tidbits if anyone wants to give it a try. I bought a small
| bottle of heavy water as well, which I of course sampled and
| can confirm it has a slightly sweet taste to it.
|
| You really have to get your eyes adjusted to the dark to see
| anything with the spinthariscope. It ends up looking mostly
| like static on a green crt, but if your only reference frame is
| a cloud chamber, the volume of particles that are emitted from
| such a weak source is pretty remarkable.
| cbm-vic-20 wrote:
| Don't miss a chance to see the Cherenkov radiation effect at your
| local research reactor.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherenkov_radiation
| anfractuosity wrote:
| https://dberard.com/home-built-stm/ shows individual atoms.
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(page generated 2026-03-30 23:00 UTC)