Photosynthesis photography: Making images with living plant leaves

[@HuygensOptics]

As a photolithography enthousiast, I approve this video😊. Fantastic work Ben!

[@pixels_]

Collab opportunities!??

[@AppliedScience]

Thank you! Maybe you know the answer to this: What is the minimum f/number for a multi-element camera lens made with glass in air? One of the other comments indicates the theoretical minimum is f/0.5 due to numerical aperture of the final element being limited to 1. Thinking about microscope objectives, this seems to make sense, but I feel like there are a lot of assumptions being made, and that the theoretical limit would be lower if the focal plane can be curved, or if non-spherical optics are used, or if the lens design is asymmetric, or if the object is at infinity. I searched around the web, and there is a whole bunch of conflicting information and poor explanations. What do you think?

[@TheNewton]

​@@AppliedScience always like these projects that bring up interdisciplinary questions and the big meta question of how to find quality answers.

[@HuygensOptics]

@@AppliedScience Indeed the maximum NA of air microscope objectives is around 1, which is caused by the critical angle of the light passing the last glass air interface. This critical angle is generally around 42 degrees but is also dependent on the difference between the refractive indices. It's the reason why ASML uses (water) immersion lithography in their DUV machines, otherwise they cannot get the light out. Same for oil immersion objectives. So if resolution is your goal, then you should find the "water plant equivalent" of the Geranium ;-). I don't think that is the case though, so if you are determined to increase NA, try projecting on a spherical image surface and you can go higher than NA 1. At some point though, the local temperature increase by the light might slow down or even stop the photosynthesis.

[@jimbrookhyser]

Maybe just add sun reflectors to illuminate the subject more.

[@thethoughtemporium]

I've been so excited for this video since we spoke about it at opensauce and it's even better than you described. This is amazing!!

[@skivvy3565]

The youtuber Neptunium is building a homemade particle accelerator and needs applied science’s advice, please help ben get in touch with neptunium. And go watch his video!

[@forrestberg591]

So rare to find a channel that ONLY uploads complete, well produced and documented projects. These are ideas I’ve never and likely never would have heard of. These would make unbelievable gifts

[@Prophes0r]

I understand your sentiment and agree with it. However, I don't think the word "complete" actually works. It's almost always "I have been working on this for a while, and I'm comfortable saying I have learned X much about it so far." Ben rarely ever seems to "complete" anything, because most of the videos he shows us are about interesting tangents or simply play. (Which is TOTALLY fine. Taking those "Huh. I wonder if/how/what..." thoughts and actually DOING something with them is a rare gift indeed.)

[@bulka5305]

​@@Prophes0rhe probably talks about how other channels do 15 minute video only about lenses, and the whole process will be like 5 or 10 videos to make more profit

[@nathanieljames7462]

I appreciate that he doesn't premeire and just uploads the vid

[@Prophes0r]

@@bulka5305It isn't always for profit. When I plan lessons, even ones showing a single topic like this video, I like to break them up into bite-sized pieces to make it easier to digest. It can also make them easier to return to specific sections to refresh yourself on specific segments. But, there certainly are some who would break things up for profit reasons...

[@CableWrestler]

LTT take note.

[@-feonix48-47]

Always an instant click from me. This channel is an absolute gem

[@BeholdTheCraqueNetwork]

Ditto

[@Lukesab3r]

Same here!

[@markgreco1962]

Yup!

[@seeigecannon]

Something you can do to extend the useful life of the alcohol is to include charcoal to it. For a while at my job we were having to remove chlorophyll from IPA and a filter impregnated with charcoal worked fantastically.

[@thomascorbin5202]

As always, you come up with something even experienced science enthusiasts have never heard of! What a fascinating interaction with physics and biology

[@Rigel_Z]

If you want to try scaling this up to an absurd size, you should start growing some Petasites japonicus. Makes absolutely huge yet thin and delicate leaves. I've got some growing in my backyard, maybe I'll give it a go if I find myself with an empty weekend.

[@LarsLarsen77]

Tobacco leaves are the leafiest thing in the universe. If grown in a high humidity environment they're extremely wide and long.

[@steve1]

I was thinking banana leaves for a large format photo

[@pattheplanter]

Gunnera manicata, prickly but massive.

[@TheNewton]

Can such plants leaves grow sandwiched in glass plates to be even flatter or more uniform?

[@the_eminent_Joshua_E_Hrouda]

​@@TheNewtondon't forget to let them breathe CO2!!

[@joshroolf1966]

My parents were professional geranium growers when I was very young, and photogrammetry was my favorite darkroom technique in school; so this was an amazing intersection of these things for me! Thank you, I may have to dabble..:::😄

[@thenickdude]

Photogerammetry, lol

[@gus473]

​@@thenickdude😂 Or would it be "photogerainometry?"

[@RickshawMunky]

As an arboriculturalist this blows my mind. Many many thanks for sharing this amazing project.

[@hardwareful]

Can we learn something about the plant by e.g. adding a grayscale bar? As far as I know, photosynthetic activity saturates as the light intensity increases, so this could be a way to average out daily exposure and measure it under real-world conditions?

[@KevinHorecka]

Ugh I love your channel so much. Such a fantastic combination of whimsical engineering, interesting science, and thorough, clear presentation. Always the best thing I see that day when you release a video.

[@nahueljo]

Amazing video! I had no idea you could also do it like this. I've done this before but much simpler. You take a leaf (already cut from the tree/plant. needs to be deciduous.), you print your POSITIVE image on some transparent or semi-transparent paper, put on top of the leaf and that pressed together with a glass and a sheet of wood or something, then expose to direct sunlight until you notice in parts of the leaf that are visible that it starts turning yellowish-brown (maybe a few hours, maybe a couple of days). So when you take it out you already have an image. The parts blocked by the positive are green and the parts not blocked are yellowish-brown. If you put it in a book or something it might last a couple of years but otherwise it'll degrade pretty quickly. There's some people that use a fixing process that uses glycerin and some house-hold chemicals. They call them "chlorotypes"

[@pattheplanter]

I thought it might be something like chlorotype. With starch/iodine it could be an amylotype from the Greek for starch.

[@pattheplanter]

What about using the change to fall/autumn colour? Cercis has a reasonable size leaf and the pink/orange colours are from chlorophyll breakdown.

[@TheNewton]

" The parts blocked by the positive are green and the parts not blocked are yellowish-brown." Am I not reading that right, wouldn't the blocked parts be yellowish-brown from lack of sunlight?

[@nahueljo]

@@TheNewton this is using dead leaves. The sun turns them yellow/brown. You stop that process by blocking the sun :)

[@molkhal]

Where are you man?

[@MacroAggressor]

Lugol's Iodine is fairly straightforward to make at home, and _significantly_ cheaper than you can buy pre-mixed.

[@ciprianpopa1503]

... continue ...

[@kitschinsect]

How can we make?

[@Lukesab3r]

Loving that your range of production topics is wide - it shows that science is all things. As always, I learned from your efforts and I applaud your awesome. Thanks!!!

[@JacobCanote]

You never disappoint. I will be thinking about this for years.

[@fburton8]

Professors George Porter and Eric Laithwaite were childhood heroes of mine. Watching their Christmas lectures on tv in the late 60s and 1970s was a big motivation for me to pursue a career in science.

[@iteerrex8166]

Dude, the cool unique and diverse projects you take on, with the persistence of a mad scientist lol, is pretty cool 👍

[@GuildOfCalamity]

Has Ben cured cancer yet? This man can do anything.

[@AlphaPhoenixChannel]

"you are dealing with biology, which can be kind of fickle" spoken like a physicist xD awesome project Ben - you undersold it! I want to go back to the photography project world - I'm still thinking about a potato... those have lots of starches lol

[@bigmotter001]

WOW this would be a great pursuit for any week end scientist! Thanks for posting and take care!

[@BreakingTaps]

What a delightful experiment! Super cool, thanks for digging into this rabbit hole and sharing 🙂 I wonder if separating fixation for extraction might help, particularly with thicker leaf varieties? I.e. replacing the ethanol step with a fixative (paraformaldehyde or similar) and a membrane permeabilizing agent like Triton-X. That could then be followed with a more mild clearing step to remove the chlorophyll since everything has already been fixed in place. At least that's how I'd tackle it in cell bio... but plants are weird so huge grain of salt 😅 There's also been some recent work on clearing protocols like ClearSee (DOI: 10.1093/pcp/pcab033) and ClearSeeAlpha (DOI: 10.1242/dev.127613) that produce remarkably transparent specimens, intended for fluorescent imaging. Maybe these could be used in some way? The urea content of the ClearSee would be problematic with the starch I think, so it'd probably have to be fixed -> iodine stained -> ClearSee, which maybe wouldn't work? Dunno, but very cool project. Thanks again for sharing, love this stuff!

[@anotherguy9402]

It's a shame you don't get more views. Each video should easily get over 1m views 😢 I think this is the only channel i have actually watched every single video with Nile red coming in second

[@bytesandbikes]

This brought back the smell of doing it in school. We used 'methlated spirits', or a mix of ethanol and methanol.

[@Psittacus_erithacus]

This was very interesting. A topic I'd never considered, explored accessibly and in some detail. Great presentation, excellent editing and clearly a ton of work & experimentation in the background. Much appreciated.

[@SardiPax]

Coleus, which comes in all sorts of colours including pale green, is fast growing and can have larger leaves than Pelargoniums (which is what the 'geraniums' you used really are, even though they are often sold as Geraniums). For really large leaves, you could even look at something like the Princess Tree or Paulownia Tomentosa. Easily grown from seed and one of the fastest growing trees in the world. When young (or cut to the ground every year) they can have leaves around 0.5m or larger and they are very flat.

[@pattheplanter]

Coleus leaves are thinner. Perhaps a Kalanchoe or Milkweed would be easier to work with?

[@CookingWithCows]

I'm just glad that this isn't a "what emergency responders tell you when you encounter grey scaled leaf negatives" derivative. And what I'm mostly relieved about it is that there's probably little chance of it becoming a medical emergency call...

[@jaredjenkins5166]

Haha, the leaf photography with the bad ass custom lens is absolutely amazing

[@kendavis8046]

Thanks! I'm glad that there are still practical science experiments being so well explained.

[@michaelseitz8938]

Cool experiment, and I love your scientific approach testing different reagents and conditions 💖 I was shocked to see you boiling methanol outside a laboratory fume hood though 😱 I wouldn't even know where to buy methanol for private use anywhere in Europe because of its toxicity.

[@anthonycalia1317]

In a time when half of America denies science as truth it is refreshing to watch videos like yours. Just looking for answers and exploring ideas that benefit us and make us all just a little bit smarter each time. I thank you for what you do.

[@Rom2Serge]

Every video release is a such a special moment for me . Subscribed years ago and video is special. Thank you.

[@SilentShadow-ss5xp]

This guy has the best job. He just does cool shit all the time. IMO this is one of the best KZbin channels ever.

[@orange422]

Leaves have stomatas only on the underside. These are openings/"mouths" that facilitate gas exchange (O2 and water out, CO2 in). Makes sense, that closing the back side didn't work.

[@covodex516]

A rainy sunday without plans besides tidying up my workbench and living room; and I'm greeted with a new amazing Applied Science video right in the morning. Thanks as always, Ben, super interesting as per usual.

[@NathanielBenson]

Binh Danh has a lot of cool art that must use a similar technique.

[@TheProluthier]

WOW! Your experiments are outstanding! Best channel ever and by far! Thanks for sharing! Inspiring!

[@tom_something]

Fun bonus footage of the leaf drifting through the supercritical CO2. It looks otherworldly, like some kind of metaphysical time-slow-down chamber.

[@floodo1]

legit one of the very best channels on the internet

[@TestEric]

Great job as always, thanks Ben.

[@oisiaa]

Ben, I literally dropped everything I was doing when I saw this video pop up on X. You are one of the few video makers that has that effect on me.

[@leonardorissato]

It's always a good day when applied science uploads

[@4623620]

👌😎👍To me the image of a leaf on the leaf itself is the most impressive 👌😎👍❗

[@mozkitolife5437]

Just amazing, Ben.

[@zbigw9352]

Applied Silence 😶

[@MrAmalasan]

This brings me so much joy. Great science but entirely pointless and done purely for the joy of experimentation

[@tristanbaranov]

I have been enjoying your videos for a long time now. I just wanted to say thank you for all the epic level screwing around! It is so very interesting, thank you for sharing the fun!

[@lemonberries]

The photo of the old truck is amazing. What a neat experiment

[@-r-495]

looking forward to seeing that lamp. the technology was tested by a major agrochemicals company, they decided it wasn’t worth the investment and kept growing their lab plants with MH lamps.

[@removechan10298]

> 9 months ago he's either had a kid, or he's waiting to develop a super long-exposure shot of a nebula on a leaf. hrm. do some more electric or sound based cutting stuff, that is always awesome! or create a modular chemistry kid - blocks that take inputs and outputs, that can be reassembled by a robot, and can run many chemical processes automatically, at scale. idk. more videos!

[@tracybowling1156]

Ah, it's my fav genius cutie! You always look like the cat who ate the canary! So cute!

[@PMaldeev]

The idea is so simple yet elegant! Thank you for bringing it up!

[@fjs1111]

This is really interesting Ben! It's always great to see a new video from you on my feed.

[@thomasw6169]

Hope Ben is fine. Haven't seen anything new in a while. Oh maby just busy.

[@dasraiser]

look at his X

[@craigs5212]

Very interesting project, thanks Ben.

[@icecreamtruckog3667]

Amazing yet again.

[@surplusdriller1]

YT is not sending me notifications about new videos, Exelent work love your projects,

[@DasIllu]

You make my brain make those happy chemicals every time you upload. Thank you for that. And thank you for being such a nerd. Makes me feel less lonely :D

[@numlock6019]

This experiment was actually in my middle school text book to demonstrate plant synthesize starch during photosynthesis. Our teach clipped a trip of black paper on the leaf and left there for few days, but in the textbook it was suppose to leave the plant in darkness for some days, the expose it to light with the mask. I don't really remember the result, the experiment was performed by teacher on stage. In the text book they used ethanol. Its is great to see how good it turns out. And it is really interesting to see that you used the exact same plant as our teach but not the same as the textbook IIRC. It was really cheap and easy to acquire ethanol in my country, but very rare to see isopropyl alcohol.

[@Ogaitnas900]

Can't wait to watch this tomorrow but I wanted to say, that's a great looking classic truck.

[@MeriaDuck]

Using photosynthesis to create photos of leafs on leafs 🤯. Very cool!

[@tolkienfan1972]

That's both crazy and awesome

[@Prophes0r]

First thought when thinking about the artificial lighting version. Using a laser projector to have X-Y control and "print" the carbohydrates at specific points. I did a bit of quick research and it seems there are some studies relating to low-power and/or indoor plant growth using single-wavelength photosynthesis. A leaf could be isolated in a dark box while still connected to the plant, and the laser image projected onto it's surface.

[@stevesloan6775]

I picture plants screaming 😏 One of those prints would look great behind glass framed. Love your channel 🇦🇺🤜🏼🤛🏼🍀😎

[@SVanHutten]

Amazing content, as always.

[@Neptunium]

It makes so much sense ! of course photosynthesis as a camera! very cool! I am definitely trying that!

[@jameslucarelli7172]

I hope to make videos like this one day about my projects, your videos are too good ben!

[@brendanmassaro9595]

I imagine the size limit for an effective lens would be the point where there is so much light the leaf spontaneously catches fire

[@AndrejRadulovic-yu1hm]

We want more of your wideos!!!

[@JoseSilveira-newhandleforYT]

Very interesting idea! Like most of your projects, this one presses all my buttons simultaneously 🙂 Well done!

[@mack_solo]

A lot of hours of repetitive labour to give us this awesome summary video - well done! Would be interesting to see the differences between annual plants' leaves, like sugar cane (supposedly one of the most photosynthesis efficent plants) and long lifers like maple or oak tree. Looking forward to your artificial light source findings. There are LED lights which cater specifically for highest photosynthetically active radiation with mixture or red and blue diodes. Excellent work!

[@galileo_rs]

Funny thing: around these parts (Serbia) I can buy ethanol in any pharmacy but isopropyl is only found in specialized stores.

[@mahejeah]

Ben my man, original as always!

[@davidadams421]

I did not want that to stop. Very interesting! And inspiring.

[@timanderson5717]

In Australia, ethanol is available pretty much everywhere and is considerably cheaper than isopropanol. As long as it still works with a little bit of bittering agent, it should be fine.

[@DooMMasteR]

Yeah as a German I was also very confused, just buy "Brennspiritus" "denatured alcohol" it is >99% Ethanol...

[@grandpateal]

Is wish you would start an actual university. You're a great teacher and your videos are always awesome. My favorite is the how to on astronaut ice cream.

[@Shmoozo55]

Sitting here watching this I'm finding myself thinking about trying this with some Colocasia gigantea leaves. Colocasia gigantea is also sometimes known as the elephant ear plant. Look up images of the plant and you'll soon see why. The leaves are enormous. 🤯

[@LQgsuppe]

Thanks! Love it when u uploade

[@jcmilleker5449]

In many other photographic alternative processes we have to use glass as acrylic will block some UV as you noted. Also, put the inked surface of your printed negative against the leaf. The frosted layer of your transparency material (pictorico, fixxons) can rob you of some sharpness. We usually use super thin transparency material (completely clear, write on kind) if we're putting the negative on a process that can damage it. None of this may matter, but wanted to share.

[@davidcora2751]

Complicated for me. I love to learn ❤️💕 though.Very interesting. Thank you.

[@joshdeval9545]

awesome video! love your channel

[@gerryjamesedwards1227]

Sulphur plasma lighting should be excellent, as the spectrum is very similar to natural sunlight, but I'd be also be interested in the common method of getting usable levels of photosynthetically active light from LEDs by combining the two wavelengths that are most used by the plants, red and blue.

[@thartwig]

large format would be the next step, using something large like philodendron or monstera would be interesting, but obviously there are a lot of hurdles to make that work.

[@R2_Ross]

I found that SUPER interesting and am so excited to see you next time Ben! Who else but you can casually bring supercritical drying into an experiment series and widely communicate the results!

[@seabeepirate]

I learned about this from a science fair idea book when I was a kid. Very cool!

[@witcheater]

🌞🌞 That was interesting to be reminded about and being done anew. Thank you

[@pXnEmerica]

Pumpkins might be worth a shot. Lots of material, pretty quickly.

[@dr.zarkhov9753]

Wonderful rediscovery!

[@ghostmanscores1666]

I have some photos that turned out nice of a maple leaf in Michigan where one fell on the other and masked a perfect picture of it's self. I figured something like this inspired photography.

[@Void_And_Absent]

You do interesting things.

[@gregfeneis609]

Very cool topic and video! I imagine plant nutrition has a good bit to do with how well a plant's leaves will produce for this process. Poor soil or tending might make things difficult. Perhaps fertilize, repot or get another plant as necessary

[@rolandgerard6064]

Great channel, thx.

[@ThePrintMint]

This is some cool spy craft!

[@DuckPerc]

6:44 spider climbs into frame (bottom, mid-right)

[@ReneSeckler]

PLEASE do a piece on that lamp. I've been fascinated by those microwave lamps for a loooong time but they are basically impossible to get over here

[@joppepeelen]

haha love these types of experiements, might not be insane usefull. but extreme good fun, and interesting none te less.

[@ConjecturedScience]

From the Ri video George does say that a piece of blotting paper is soaked in bicarbonate of soda and put behind the leaf.

[@EricDalgetty]

I would love to see the 2 foot lens in a future video :)

[@ledhunters]

Hi there, its time for new video 😄

[@dtroy15]

Very cool video! I have a video idea for you! Have you ever thought about trying to make night vision? I've often wondered about whether i could make an MCP and combine it with an old CRT display to make home-made night vision. Keep the cool projects coming! I've been watching since the liquid N drill video.

[@electrodacus]

A video projector even a small LED one will be more than sufficient for photosynthesis. Plants do not use the IR spectrum so there more than half of the 1000W/m^2 is lost so much so that I will build a green house with no windows (need good insulation in this very cold climate) and the 20% or so efficient solar panels + very efficient warm white LED's will be almost the equivalent of having windows (so 1m^2 of solar panel will be equivalent with 1m^2 of window). The big advantage is that heat will stay inside the green house at night and there is also not a huge temperature variation.