radioactivity on polaroid - an attempt to x-ray a dead mouse

[626hunters]

@ruhs1992 she's German if I'm not mistaken idiot

[TheAfroninga]

Where in the hell do you get this stuff?

[ruhs1992]

Why did you post this online? You talk like a retard and didn't do anything cool.

[juraj4electro]

what about using small (pointlike) and stronger gamma source, or using some rock and collimate its rays using pinhole in some lead plate or using lead cyllinder+some shielding for rest of radiation so rays that are aiming a target not much prependicular to it will be just absorbed by cyllinder and they will not blur resulting picture? Or you could make a thinner slice of the mouse and put a source on it, maybe the closer is source and target to a photo the less blurring...

[bionerd23]

@juraj4electro

yeah, a collimator would be a good idea. that's how they do it in nuclear medicine, too... then again, that's very hard to DIY, as lead is a seriously annoying material to work with. it's soft and possible to cut easily, but drilling holes into it is a right b*tch. would have to melt it and cast it into a collimator form...

[modgemtb]

perhaps if you made a lens from a radioactive substance for a camera then put the baby mouse on the lens take a photograph?

[Msieeeeen]

00 6 how the mouse fall ^^ lol

[tapout320]

How are you not dead yet?

[Kodachi123]

Deine Videos sind so verdammt interessant!

[hubzcaps]

hhahah at the begining i heard a cdma2000 burst! could be gpmrs

[GalderIncarnate]

5:04 "My guess is that for a proper xray, you would have to first of all use xrays"

lol wow

[ChorltonBrook]

We have a saying over here : 'play with fire and you'll get burned'. Take care.

[Doppelbuckel]

Why should the cole be radioactive from lying next to watch dials?

[bionerd23]

@Doppelbuckel

because of radon in the decay chain. it's radon is a radioactive noble gas and thus, capable of "moving". radon itself is radioactive, too. thus, the daughter nuclides get trapped in the activated carbon. watch?v=gN_b-rmq1c4

[skullkruncher14]

Why are you touching radioactive material?

[bionerd23]

@skullkruncher14

because i can.

[MarcusLKF001]

@bionerd23 Oh god that reply is so epic in many ways

[projectdurden]

cool, i live in Japan, near Tokyo. I am trying to get a geiger counter. i don't trust the government over here. anyone know where I can get one that will test the air?

[bionerd23]

@projectdurden

well, you can, for example, get them on ebay - then again, i really dont know how well postal services work after the incidents in your country. i have no idea which shops might sell geiger counters in your country; but e.g. old "civil defense" equipment from the USA / canada is quite crude, but a cheap and sufficiently reliable way to measure increased radiation.

good luck and courage to you! i hope the wind will blow the fallout to the sea again.

[cbehlok]

@projectdurden

amazon.com/gp/product/B004V3TY­EU

Only place that currently has it in stock...

[UnoRaza]

Ever give though as to why they might be giving our atmosphere a barium/aluminum enema?

What would barium do when hit by an EMP?

Chuz!

[iElite6809]

And then you'll eat your food off that table.

Mmm, this salad tastes like ß-particles!

[brett19971]

THATS GROWS!!!!

[MrTurLion]

Do you ever worry about your heath?

[duophonix]

Where can you purchase those yellow radioactive sample disks?

[vmelkon]

@duophonix unitednuclear

[cassiavc]

Please tell me that you did not kill thoose rats for doing it.

[bionerd23]

@cassiavc

it's a mouse, not a rat. :P

...but indeed it came pre-killed and sold as reptile food, so no, i did not kill it.

[cassiavc]

@bionerd23 hahahahaah....I don't know the difference between a rat or a mouse....Is there any?

[bionerd23]

@cassiavc

rats are much bigger and have a longer naked tail relative to the body, and they're REALLY different... like, they dont stink. yes, rats (and e.g. gerbils) dont stink, but the common house mouse has a horrible stench. rats in a clean cage will smell lovely of fresh hay.

also, rats are INCREDIBLY intelligent, being able to solve difficult tasks (search for some videos here; they can even be trained to come upon call etc, like dogs), while mice are rather dull.

[cassiavc]

@bionerd23 Great' then! Thanks! I am actually leaning a lot with you.

[phillipdogyface]

@bionerd23 i have 7 pet rats and i teach them twice a day how to play rat ball (rats fight over a golf ball sized woofle ball and jump through hoops) and they are so good at it! they smell like freshly baked tortillas to me

[sirMAXX77]

i hope you remembered to wash your hands. btw where is a good place to get radioactive isotopes?

[forallpurposesonly]

Is that mouse taxidermed?

[bionerd23]

@forallpurposesonly

nope, it's "raw" as it was when it died, with all entrails and stuff. :P

[Muniam]

Never the less, these picture look awesome. Please, tell me you scanned them In high resolution so we can use them as computer background. They look like a nebula ^^

[bionerd23]

@Muniam

well, sorta ;) - they're on my flickr, and the link to that is on my channel page as "Website:". just search for "autoradiography" on my photostream, and you'll find some of the photos.

[littlemexicantheif]

how many rads were you expsoed to from this here enough for health risk?

[bionerd23]

@littlemexicantheif

haha, nah. maybe my hands got 1% of what you'd get when you get a dental x-ray. maybe 0.0001 rad. i dont have anything that could cause a significant health risk. however, radioactivity is highly overrated within the general population, so everybody assumes that when there's a trefoil on something, it's gonna kill you.

[sorrowdragon]

your an idiot!

[FelixTheHouseFreak]

@sorrowdragon From the guy who fails at recognizing the difference between "your" and "you're".

[DrMotorDude]

@sorrowdragon It's "you're" not "your," idiot. 

[sorrowdragon]

@DrMotorDude

No it's "You"

As in, You Are The Idiot.

[DrMotorDude]

@sorrowdragon Fecal debris, you posted "Your an idiot" [sic]

Those of us who both know what 'bionerd23' is doing AND have mastered languages not limited to English will give you the opportunity to unfuck YOUR high school drop out level grammar. ****POP**** now that YOUR head is out of YOUR anus...

[raef235ahjx]

what a woman ... 

[zioboby]

your neighbour must have 3 arms

[FilippoGatti1991]

@zioboby lol

[daenumen]

lmao, you do some great experiments!

[derbaroper]

"Powerful x-rays made from sticky tape" have you already seen this?

[bionerd23]

@derbaroper

yep, but thanks anyway, pretty cool stuff. :)

[iminyourbasement]

thats trippy

[360ower1]

dude this is soo daim nasty lol

[davecottom]

crack it open

[jkenny1]

Looks very cool!

[KarbineKyle]

5/5! Awesome! It looks as though the Pitchblende and the baby mouse turned out the best! It's blurred some, but that's because radiation scatters in all directions from the source. It's beautiful! You could really make some nice artwork from radioactive materials, and it's quite safe too. Some people think radiation is like an "apparition" or "cloud" that's out to get them... lol... IMO, it's like a light bulb, only, you don't "see" the light, and certain light bulbs have different energies. ;)

[bionerd23]

yup, that's why one uses collimators in professional appliances / medicine - to prevent the scattered "stray radiation" to cause a blurry picture. =)

but, your comparison to a light bulb would only be applicable to an x-ray source, i think. remember that sources with radionuclides cannot be switched off... also, there is some stuff (like uranium ore) that actually produces a "radioactive cloud" - or more like, radioactive gas, radon.

[jtaznboys132]

u r evil

[PageRob]

You can build a homemade x-ray machine too. I'd be interested in seeing how that would work with polaroid film. There's videos here on YouTube about homemade x ray machines.

[bionerd23]

i suppose it'd work the same as gamma radiation - only quicker maybe, depends on how many x-rays you are producing. :)

maybe i should try and put one under the x-ray machine of a hospital, see what happens. that'd be interesting, thanks for the idea!

[formatdyskuc]

Where did You get the sources?

[freshmazzing]

Don't you think it's dangerous to touch so much sources of radioactivity...like this peace of uranium?? :D:D

and where are these radioactive things from??

[bionerd23]

i explain that in my other videos. :)

[cyberbadger]

It's all about Intensity, Distance, and Exposure Time.

[magx1]

Is it possible that these images lack detail primarily because you are not using a point source?

[bionerd23]

that is likely to play a role, too; but as not even a blurry bone structure can be seen, i suppose i'd need more / higher energy rays - but also a less diffuse source, probably, that's right.

[sarahbananaful]

I dont understand how you got the x-ray?

[bionerd23]

the ionizing radiation used to illuminate the polaroids came from the radioisotopes i placed on the film...

[wowggscrub]

coal can become radioactive? im going to try

[NapoleonLouverture]

won't you even put gloves?!

[nonsquid]

Well done. I am happy somebody still does things rather than talks about things.

[nasran78]

wow..where did you managed to get those radioactive materials?

[Ikeweemering]

thats what i like to know

[KovenFTO]

R.I.P. Mouse..

[RubinSchmidt]

Most serial killers have admitted to being cruel to little animals.

[JeraldAnAlcaholcMoos]

ummmm where did u get the rats/mice?

[bionerd23]

snake / reptile pet store. they offer nice frozen rodents to feed carnivorous pets with.

[gkyy3c]

YOU ARE KILLING YOURSELF

[bionerd23]

you know more than i do, then. :-)

[sizhan]

you dropped the mouse.

[eaglevision993]

Hey,

tolle Videos! Hab auch den GammaScout und kann ihn nur weiterempfehlen.

Falls du Interesse an alten (gut erhaltenen) Civil Defense Geigerzählern hast, lass es mich wissen. Hab noch diverse CDV-700 (Geiger Mueller ), CDV 715 (Ion Chamber)

Noch viel Spass und Take Care!

Benny

[rico199400]

echt CDV mit der externen Sonde und lautsprecher?

[rico199400]

echt die CDV 715 mit der externen Sonde und lautsprecher?

[eaglevision993]

Hmm...kam mein Kommentar nicht an?-...komisch..

Naja dann nochmal: Der CDV 715 (geht bis 500 Röntgen ) hat keine Soundausgabe, der CDV 700 (bis 50 mR)hat die, und auch die abnehmbare Sonde.

Den CDV 700 kann man auch sehr gut erweitern.

[mike240se]

also i assume you have some americium since its the easiest to get, unless you guys dont use it in smoke detectors in germany?

[bionerd23]

we do not use it anymore, as installing ionising smoke detectors is no longer legal for new buildings / installations. however, just having an old smoke detector at home is not illegal afaik - never heard it would be, anyway.

[mike240se]

how is it the radium watch would do anything at all?  radium only emits alpha particles, which would easily be shielded by the glass and metal on the watch. alpha particles can be shielded by a sheet of paper!

[bionerd23]

radium decays by emitting an alpha particle, that is true - but it doesnt decay into nothing. radium 226 decays into radon 222 -> polonium 218 -> lead 214 -> bismuth 214 -> polonium 214 -> lead 210 -> bismuth 210 -> polonium 210-> stable lead 210.

you can see there are a lot of beta decays in that decay chain, as the mass number does not change (electron emission). if its an alpha decay (2 protons, 2 neutrons), the core loses those, changing the mass number to -4 of the previous radioisotope.

[bionerd23]

also, there is quite a few - especially hard - gamma radiation from radium's daughter nuclides, as a lot of the decay products will be in an excited state, thus, immediately emitting a gamma quantum after decay to lose the excess energy.

[bionerd23]

see my "autoradiography - radioactivity on polaroid" video, by the way; i put some radium watch hands on the polaroid pack there, and they did illuminate the film.

[alysdexia]

You said beta, cæsium, radium, and uranium wrong. Then again it's illiterate Commonwealth's fault, who can't speak Latin /or/ English. And I would shorten "hundred and" tom "hund".

"lysdexia " on flickr

Autymn D. C. eleswhere

[bionerd23]

meh, english is not my primary language, so i have an excuse, dont i? :P

[LuckyImExil]

Now that's a damn nice collection of radioactive materials. The only radioactive material I've ever seen in real life was some uranium pellets (usually used as nuclear fuel in nuclear power plants), although I don't know for sure if they were "real" uranium pellets - I can't afford a gamma-scout like yours ;) - , they did look like the pictures of uranium fuel I've seen on the internet though.

P.S.: I DON'T wanna know where you got those dead mice from :P

[alysdexia]

No it's not nescius; you are.

[bionerd23]

ok, do NOT read this, then:

i got them frozen as snake food from a reptile store ;-)

lol, thanks anyway! :-)

[TheOmegaHG]

That is the newest form of modern art, radioactive art. lol

Nice, very nice. I want to do this now.

[ExtremelyGoofyMovie]

Isn't that toxic with all those radioaktive metals?

And where did you get this?

[bionerd23]

phew, all kinds of sources... household materials... ordered online... from people i know... and found some uranium myself, too.

[clony101]

how can you use that radioactive material with out useing special gloves

[terrellbrinlee]

that's a cool polaroid

[boamuro]

Wow, you have a very strange hobby.... that seems sooo unsafe doing all these things in your home. You don't have any kids or plan to have any, will you? Do you think about the safety hazards carefully? I wouldn't want to visit your "laboratory".

[bionerd23]

nope, i do not have / want any kids and i dont have any pets either. i take care that nobody gets in touch with stuff from my "lab" accidentally. while i may do whatever i want to my own body, i know that it is my responsibility not to put others in dangers with what i do.

[UAEchemist2]

I can order an X-ray tube, the only problem is i can't find a source that ships here. If you know any then let me know.

[10mintwo]

the problem with your blurry radiographs is the sources are much too close to the subject and the radiation is too diffuse. take the dead mouse and put it on your setup normally, then take your Sr source (looks like it's the brightest) and suspend it 10-15cm over the mouse/polaroid setup. give it several days to expose (3-4?) before developing. the further away you put the source the more point like it will be and the sharper the shadowgraph will be but also the longer the exposure will need be

[bionerd23]

thanks a lot of that tip! it sounds pretty plausible, that. the only problem is the amount of time needed for the exposure... i think it would need a week with this weak source. polaroids dont like freezers, but i guess it'd be ok in a tupperware in the fridge. i could just tape the source to the tupperware's lid, too - that should work and not get too messy. i think i'll try this next time i do an autoradiography - again, thanks a lot for the tip!

[Ikeweemering]

that's called geometric unsharpness

[ScreamingElectron]

Aw man :(. Oh well i guess part of being a scientist is learning to live with a number of failures. I'm surprised that the uranium ore didn't yeild any interesting results...i guess i always figured that it put out more gamma than it appeared to have. Oh well.

Hey maybe if you could steal a speck of plutonium from your local government.... :)

[bionerd23]

lol, i dont think plutonium would work, either. a chunk of plutonium would just expose (whiten) the film completely in no time at all. ^_^

nah, i think the best bet is an x-ray tube, really.

[LechuCzechu]

Feel stupid about it - I hoped they would perform better.

[bionerd23]

dont worry about it - it was a rather certain thing to happen. ;-)

the welding rods only contain 2% thorium OXIDE, and also, a lot of the alpha rays emitted by it will be shielded by the tungsten it is encased into. yet, it's a great item for my collection, because i'd like a sample of every industrial / household appliance that contains radioactive material, so thanks for the tip anyway!

[LechuCzechu]

Thanks for testing welding rods. Almost no radiation as I can see from the photo - even the old watch was better. Too bad.

[AScannerClearly]

I'm thinking maybe the pitchblend on top of the baby rodent was too large, and because the radiation source was just too diffuse, that it washed out the fine details like bones? The smaller the light source, the sharper of an image you can get, so maybe using the Barium or a pure gamma emitter and exposing for 24/48 hrs might make bones visible. The coal radiation might've been washed out from the rad of the other big pitchblende. Great video as always! =)

[bionerd23]

thanks for your thoughts on this - yeah, well, the exposure on the mouse's hand / feet was surely too long, as you can see - its but a blot. but, if i place the source discs on top of a grown mouse's body (and let them expose for 24 hrs as well), maybe it'd work... i may try this, but i seriously have my doubts, as mentioned in the video.

[KrypticGuy666]

Doesn't all this exposure to radioactive material induce tumors to the body?

[bionerd23]

in theory, any amount of ionising radiation MAY induce mutation and cancer. the more radiation, the more of a chance for cancer.

the amount i am handling is far too low to be clearly identified as a cause of cancer, though; you'd have to use much, much higher doses for a high probability of developing cancer due to the exposure to ionising radiation (as there are a lot of other factors that can cause cancer, too).

[KrypticGuy666]

Just be sure to not have any accidents, and get exposed to an excess of radiation.

[bionerd23]

yeah, i'll try to keep my received dose as low as possible. :-)

[legominifigure7]

Whered you buy the thorium ore and the rod?

[KosmynC64]

OMG I thaught you will X-Ray the whole mice but when I saw you cutting the mice I started a laughter.

[bionerd23]

i thought it may be too thick to x-ray the whole thing... then again - considering the results - maybe not. i may retry it with a whole mouse, just for fun. =)

[Blinkwing]

was ist eig. mit der Uhr, warum ist da Radium drin?

[bionerd23]

radium wurde frueher (um 1950) als leuchtstoff verwendet... denn als das radium noch 'frisch' war, hat es wunderbar gruen geleuchtet. die leute wussten damals noch nicht, was fuer einer gefahr sie sich aussetzen... und viele arbeiterinnen, die die uhren bemalt haben - die sogenannten 'radium girls' - sind durch den umgang mit radium gestorben.

[Blinkwing]

wow, hoffentlich wirste kein "Radium Boy" xD

aber ziemlich interessant mit dem Radiumals Leuchtstoff, ist denn bei der Uhr oder speziell beim Radium die Halbzeit abgelaufen?

[bionerd23]

nee, ich fress das zeug ja nicht... und wenn, dann waere ich ja auch ein 'radium girl' und kein 'radium boy'. ;-)

die halbwertszeit ist noch nicht abgelaufen; radium hat eine HWZ von 1590 jahren. das zeug dunkelt nur irgendwie innerhalb von jahren (zumindest an der luft, d.h. wenn nicht im vakuum oder unter argon) nach, so dass es seine leuchtkraft verliert... wenn man die uhr mit UV-licht anstrahlt, dann leuchtet sie aber immernoch knallgruen. =)

[Blinkwing]

achso, cool, also kann man sagen, dass das ziemlich oxidiert xD

naja, sry, ich dachte du wärst n boy xD

[bionerd23]

yup... ich denke, daran liegt das. weiss ich nicht zu 100%, aber ich denke es mir mal so... passiert ja auch mit anderen dingen, z.b. blei wird ja auch massiv vom sauerstoff attackiert... nach einiger zeit wird das extrem silbrig glaenzende metall daher so grau und stumpf, wie man es ueblicherweise kennt.

[Blinkwing]

achso, oder kupfer bei der Freiheitsstatue

BTW, bei deinem Video: Finding Uranium in Nature:

Mein haus ist 385KM davon entfernt xD

[bionerd23]

hmmm... soviel ich weiss ist patina (die sich auf kupfer bildet, das gruenliche zeug da) kein oder zumindest kein reines oxidationsprodukt... waehrend die graue schicht auf blei definitiv eine oxidschicht ist.

[Blinkwing]

achso, naja, gut zu wissen, ich willdich zwar net beleidigen, aber iwie hörst du dich wie ein junge an xD

[bionerd23]

jo, das haben schon viele gesagt. ;-)

auf meinem 'fusion 2008' video z.b. kannst du mich aber auch sehen UND hoeren (bei irgendwas knapp ueber 2 minuten), dann siehst du, dass die stimme zu einer frau gehoert... =)

naja... obwohl... genetisch und koerperlich bin ich ne frau, aber die stimme und das gehirn hab ich von nem mann, deswegen sage ich oft 'ich bin ein schwuler mann in einem frauenkoerper'. ^_^

[Blinkwing]

haha, lol xD

[Nefret]

'ein schwuler mann in einem frauenkoerper'

o_O

Für mich bist du Marie Curie II ;D

[IIcantsmell]

Interesting vid, where did you get the ore?

[bionerd23]

it's from uranium mines in saxony, germany. check out my 'finding uranium in nature' video for details on such locations.

[erykp]

o.m.g i would never kill an mouse or even touch it...LOL

u have balls!

[sciencoking]

good to know that you´re still alive ;-)

btw i´m makng research about getting strontium out of strontium chloride -> stable strontium metal. Im´going to put it in an ampule just like i did with lithium

btw: oh wow the thorianite is actually really tiny... i thought it was about 4 times as big...

btw RIP mice (yes otherwise they would have been eaten by snakes, i know)

LOL @ for a proper X-ray you will have to use X-rays

[bionerd23]

yeah, i'm still alive - i'm just quite busy lately and only have time to experiment on weekends, which is rather sad. :-(

interesting idea about the strontium, i'm curie-ous about the results of your experiment, as usual!

and... i will one day buy and run an x-ray tube, but it'll be a while until i can do that... need time and knowledge for it, as it'd be really dangerous otherwise.

[sciencoking]

lol @ curie-ous

that´s funny... i already did some research about X-ray tubes... they are actually quite safe if you just switch them on for a few seconds (maybe shield the rays that don´t go the right way with lead and it SHOULD be ok)

[bionerd23]

well, an x-ray is taken in... what, 100ms? and you usually receive doses up to 200 uSv, depending on the area that is being x-rayed (of course, a small one-tooth x-ray is less than a panorama mouth x-ray, and that again is less than a full chest x-ray, etc.). so, if you'd leave the x-ray tube on and stand right in the 'beam', you'd may get radiation sickness in just a few minutes. it is potentially dangerous if you're careless in what you do or dont know exactly what you're doing.

[c4r00]

...100ms? It depends on the x-rays power, and that depends on the tube current. Large x-ray machines in hispitals may have the tube current of even 500mA @ 100kV so it can expose the film in such a short time. But it's 50kW! 50kW @ 230V is more than 200A, you would probably need special power line :) I suggest you to look rather for a complete dental x-ray head instead of an x-ray tube only.

[c4r00]

Such head includes an x-ray tube with a HV transformer already closed tight in a special casing filled insulatign oil. It needs only 230V to work and you don't have to mess with the oil and high voltage :) It's also preety safe becouse it's well shielded and the tube current is only a few milliamps. The exposure time is longer of course, maybe a few seconds, but the radiation dose is the same as 100ms with a larger x-ray machine.

[c4r00]

My machine (about 10mA @ 70kVp) needs 3-5s to fully expose a photographic paper with "blue" intensifying screen from 1m distance.

[bionerd23]

cool, thanks a lot for all those valuable infos! my guess was 100ms because of what i experienced at my dentist as well as at a hospital, but they have rather new digital x-ray equipment.

that dental x-ray machine sounds like a very good idea though, i'll look into it! again, thanks for the tips!

ps: do you have any videos / images from your x-ray machine?

[c4r00]

Looks like you haven't seen my website :) c4r0(dot)skrzynka(dot)org - check the "X-Rays" section - there's a lot of pics. Unfortunately I translated only the "Making X-Ray pictures" to english till now, the rest is in polish only.

[bionerd23]

wow, just took a quick look at it - those pictures are amazing! i will check it out thoroughly this evening, when i have time.

man, that'd be a toy for me indeed...

[LordPlextor]

It doesn't matter if it worked or not, but the final image is amazing! It looks like a photography of distant galaxies or something.

Have you got an x-ray-tube? Experiments with such a device would be interesting!

Keep on experimenting!!!

Kind regards,

-LP

[bionerd23]

thanks - yeah, i still think the final image makes a good piece of radioactive art, too. :-)

i do not have an x-ray tube YET, but i do plan on getting one in the future. i am quite busy lately and i will have to do proper research before running an x-ray tube at home, as this is extremely dangerous if you lack the proper knowledge. but, i will do it one day, that's certain. =)