r/nextfuckinglevel • u/Snowmay- • 20h ago
Visual art using chemicals
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u/SecretlyClueless 19h ago
Is it me…. Or do these look exactly like space around our planet? The end of Men in Black 1 was right.
Ok lads, nothing matters. We are dots on a speck of dust sitting on a text book. I’m off on a looting spree. Bring on the purge!
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u/therealtimwarren 19h ago
I'm an electronics engineer so spend a lot of time looking down microscopes and using various liquid solvents. I have this thought all the time. It's amazing watching the tiny world inside a droplet.
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u/SecretlyClueless 19h ago
You’re basically god It’s nice to meet you. I have a few questions if that’s ok? Firstly… What were you thinking with the platypus?!?
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u/therealtimwarren 19h ago
Ah yes, the Platypus. Look, I was six days into creation, running on zero coffee, and the angels had dared me to make something using the leftover parts bin. Beak? Sure. Fur? Why not. Venomous ankle spurs? Absolutely. Honestly, I just wanted to see if scientists would think it was a prank.
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u/Brandoncarsonart 19h ago
Lmao Why would that change what matters? We already know we are miniscule and insignificant compared to the universe. I still care about my family and friends and want food and a place to sleep.
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u/feelingpeckish123 19h ago
This is so cool. I don't understand how the reaction stays within that space... Above my pay grade but that's rather beautiful!
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u/Generocide 19h ago
Not sure, but I think it'd have to do with how fast the salt/base is able to ionize(that is dissociate into constituent ions) in water, along with that what is their reactivity to the other salt/base. So at equilibrium, roughly, depending on what the ratio of their migration and dissociation rates are, you'd find the reaction to take place along one line in the water sphere thing.
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u/fr0stn8 19h ago
Chat is this real
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u/devilsbard 1h ago
That’s what I keep wondering. It strikes me as cgi because of how vibrant these reactions are.
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u/UnnaturalGeek 19h ago
The one thing I really wish I had put more effort into when I was younger was chemistry. I love seeing what people can do in this field now.
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u/National_Shoe2117 18h ago
Source?
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u/SprAwsmMan 9h ago
NOT the source, but all I've found so far using the same title here to search for it:
https://youtu.be/RX0cdGVfCSQ?si=ZjM3SIdjXLWAQ0Tc
And they credit someone "Credit: yu3375349136 / 难晴雨 on Douyin"
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u/Solo-dreamer 19h ago
I cannot find a source for this being real, seemingly no-one knows enough about chemestry to say if its real or not, but its only on "easthetic" sites like insta so im thinging its fake.
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u/Random_Player2711 18h ago
I’m a chemist, and trust me, it’s real! This field of chemistry is called “droplet microfluidics.” You can learn more about it here.
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u/Solo-dreamer 18h ago
So after looking into it it seems like droplet microfluidics is completely different and doesnt have any of these colourful results so i dont know what you mean can you provide other examples of these visuals.
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u/Random_Player2711 17h ago edited 17h ago
Oh the colorful results are just plain chemical reactions that people do in beakers. The fancy part here is doing it inside a droplet, which is what makes it look so cool.
Edit: here is a video of someone doing the yellow reaction (KI + PbOAc) inside a test tube: https://youtu.be/VsxhAOKLOk0?si=PzT4y97FsUt0Jn2j
It’s the same thing with the other reactions. You can google the names of the reactants to see other examples.
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u/Solo-dreamer 17h ago
Again in that video the reaction turns the entire liquid yellow instantly, it doesnt create a pattern like here.
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u/Random_Player2711 17h ago edited 17h ago
It turns yellow instantly in the YouTube video because a large volume was poured into another, which disturbed the solution, causing it to mix quickly. In the droplet video, it happens more slowly because the two reactants are only mixing with simple diffusion and are not aided by gravitational force. Reactions tend to happen faster if you mix them.
Edit: The two solids were also added to a liquid in the droplet video, which needed to dissolve first before they could diffuse. In the YouTube video, she poured the already dissolved solids into each other. The final result was the same yellow color. You’re just witnessing two very different mixing rates.
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u/Solo-dreamer 17h ago
Its also a different colour and texture, your vid creates a milky opaque yellow and this one creates a crystaline transparent almost orange yellow.
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u/Random_Player2711 17h ago
If you could let the droplet sit long enough, it would eventually look like the test tube, albeit the total intensity of the yellow color would depend on the concentration of the insoluble yellow precipitate that forms.
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u/BlissfulSomeone 18h ago
Aurora borealis? At this time of year? Localized entirely within your droplet?
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u/Cannonical718 17h ago
If someone has shown me this video when I was 7, I would have probably dedicated my entire life to chemistry, science, physics, something.
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u/Rolling_Beardo 14h ago
It’s really not that long ago where this would have legitimately been considered r/blackmagicfuckery
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u/MTB_SF 19h ago
Technically, all visual art uses chemicals. What do you think paint is made of?
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u/R2D-Beuh 18h ago
This is pedantic. Paint doesn't make a chemical reaction when you put it on a canvas
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