[UPDATED] radioactivity on video - just like inside chernobyl

i filmed multiple radioactive sources (see video for details) with my webcamera. i took the camera apart to expose the CCD, removing the glass that covers it - thus allowing even the alpha particles to strike the photo chip... with outstanding results!

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• radioactivity
• radioactive
• radioaktiv
• ionizing
• radiation
• video
• photo
• decay
• atom
• kernspur
• track
• uranium
• uran
• chernobyl
• tschernobyl
• Чернобыль
• reactor
• nuclear
• science
• physics
• atoms
• alpha
• beta
• gamma
• caesium
• 137
• strontium
• 90
• barium
• 133
• americium
• 241
• camera
• webcamera
• webcam

[quaxk]

could a thorium doped lens damage a camera sensor? I have 2 radioactive lens (rokkor 58mm f/1.2 and an old canon s.s.c. 35mm f/2), I'm a bit scared to use them after watching this :\

[bionerd23]

@quaxk

not really. only if you'd leave a film (!) in an old analog camera for a long time (weeks), it might get exposed by the radiation, and image quality will be reduced.

[ovnismx]

This is very interesting, you can measure radiation with a webcam, ok i got it that you need to remove the plastic case but how you you make the grey background?

[bionerd23]

@ovnismx

by simply using it in the dark. ;)

if it wasnt just "dim lights" but instead "total darkness", i guess you'd even have a BLACK background! \o/

[lollazers]

That's awesome. Did you remove the foil on the Am-241 source? In the US, the smoke detector cores have a gold foil layer (or something) on them. I've heard it kills the alpha output, but it didn't for Rutherford's gold foil experiment?

Also, I did try the ZnS phosphor screen thing, and didn't get very good results; maybe my screen was too thick or something as I know it works with a spinthariscope, but I couldn't see anything even with a generation 2 image intensification tube.

[bionerd23]

@lollazers

there's only a gold foil layer on the back, at least in the one i used. the front is "clean" and pure Am-241. :)

however, VERY thing gold foil (and other foils) are penetratable by alpha radiation, so it depends, i guess.

[Gheven1]

I like very much the way you act: you're only basing on science, not like irrational people who're living in scare tanks to their deep ignorance... Well done and many thanks for your very interesting videos! :-)

[theevilovenmit]

That was an awesome demonstration.

with some effort, you could create permanent images on a ccd using a perforated sheet of metal as a radiation mask, cross hairs or your signature for example.

[gronki1]

great video! I really liked it, I guess if I ever get a radioactive source I need to keep it away from my Nikon lol. There's something exciting about the fact that you can actually DESTROY something with the radiation by yourself, isn't it? :)

[ricktbdgc]

you know this chick is awesome in the sack

[utubekilledthevideo]

You need to watch some of the better documentaries on Chernobyl, and then you'l maybe realize you are toying with your future health.

[CarnalDiafragma]

@megahosters You would get an ionized eye

[crashalaska86]

what about Samarium

[iliya1997]

2:23 is that mean that this meal very radioactive?

[megahosters]

If I took apart a smoke detector and put the Am-241 to my eyeball would I get cancer or die?

[ms3bani]

think about space probes, they have to tolerate hundreds of thousands times more radiation and still have working CCDs!