The Thinnest Lens in the World is One Molecule Thick

[@SciShow]

Visit brilliant.org/scishow/ to get started learning STEM for free. The first 200 people will get 20% off their annual premium subscription and a 30-day free trial.

[@JustMe-dc6ks]

Google is running ads on your video. Make sure they’re paying you for it.

[@TheGiggleMasterP]

Finding those contact lenses are gonna be impossible 😅

[@baomao7243]

Not sure I see it. Your assertion is pretty thin…

[@benjitheengi4447]

Oh god fresnel lenses. Contacts Ribbed for your pleasure

[@baomao7243]

@@benjitheengi4447 Ribbed for your viewing pleasure

[@Avendesora]

I'll never hear something like "he was dead at the time" and not assume that he stopped being dead at some indeterminate point in the future

[@johnnydarling8021]

I think that they meant he was *still* dead at the time.

[@Avendesora]

@@johnnydarling8021 I feel like that makes it worse. “He was still dead” can give the exact same interpretation without needing to add “at the time” to it, so it just acts as an intensifier for this reading.

[@elmurcis1]

These words instantly reminds me about women who fell into bloody cold water and technicaly was dead at the time for ~30 min but was later brought back to life (and was fiiine afterwards).

[@baomao7243]

@@johnnydarling8021 “He had already died” ?

[@pamdrayer5648]

I'm sorry, you can't talk to Mr. Fresnel; he's dead at the time. Try again tomorrow.

[@earlaker]

He says, "so, please stay with me" long after I'm lost, lol!

[@Adonidus]

As an Ultrasonic technician, I always called it the "Friend Zone" not just for the Frensely name, but also because at that point the signal is too close and causing too much interference to be useful to me.

[@vidal9747]

Not one professor nor online resource could actually explain to me in a manner that left me satisfied what exactly are the virtual states of energy in Raman spectroscopy. I red papers on it, I did research in data processing of it, but I don't really understand virtual states of energy. A video in Inelastic scattering would be nice!

[@genericalias5756]

light energy is discretized/quantized through photons, meaning that you can't absorb a fraction of a photon. Vibrational energy states are too small to absorb a whole photon, so a whole photon is absorbed, elevating the electron to a virtual state, then a lower energy photon is emitted, leaving it in an elevated vibrational state

[@369frequencyandvibration]

😂 "leaving what scientists call 'a hole'"

[@LogicalThinking-p2s]

Its not always the brain. Its more often the eye or light waves themselves. Darker lines are shorter lighter area's so the light is 3D.

[@dippy4514]

sudden flash back to high school theatre when i was on the lighting crew and was always changing the lamps in our fresnels

[@GeraldBlack1]

Let's not teach ants how to use them lol.

[@e-memers9441]

I never knew lighthouses have lenses

[@capt.bart.roberts4975]

"Quantum shenaniganery!" ROTFFLMFAO !!! 😋

[@frogz]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="540">9:00</a> our boy stefan here casually calling hydrofluoric acid or aqua regia extremely gentle

[@noname_atall]

HF wouldn't dissolve gold, aqua regia would oxidize the sulfide. it is more likely that they used sodium cyanide and dilute hydrogen peroxide

[@badabing3391]

hydrofluoric acid is a weak acid, aqua regia is composed of 2 strong acids (nitric + hydrochloric acids)

[@Shaosprojects]

Instructions unclear - I have a lens stuck in my eye now

[@SquintyGears]

Sounds like we're going to get holographic lenses before this stuff gets to fruition. It's actually relatively the same idea except it's not limited to 1 atomic layer and it's research is much further along. I saw some papers on them around when the apple headset came out and 3B1B made a video on the underlying physics and how the holograms are made last month. Basically physical 3D pictures on a film. The real mind blowing part is that the hologram contains all the light properties of what it captured so if you took a "picture" of a lense, no matter how many elements, the "picture" bends the light the same way it did at the moment of capture. Tons of limitations on making them still and just like this video they only work on single wavelength light right now.

[@jonahbranch5625]

Woah, got more resources on this?

[@_andrewvia]

Stefan is doing the whole video (content and ad) himself. Everybody else delegates some of that responsibility. Come on, Stefan! Take it easy! Like the song says: Delegate! Delegate! Dance to the music!

[@rolfs2165]

Teeechnically Fresnel lenses aren't made from a lot of prisms, but a convex lens (with a flat back) that had all the unnecessary bits cut away. Yes, the individual "steps" _look_ like prisms - but they have one curved side, while a prism doesn't.

[@vidal9747]

Extreme UV litography shows that we, with a lot of effort and trillions of dollars, can create extreme small stuff. The scale of chamical bonds is Angstrons , what is about 0.1 nm. Part of logic gates of modern processors are 3nm.

[@General12th]

Hi Stefan!

[@FaeFemboi]

"High tech sounding methods" 💀 ☠️ 💀

[@MHWGamer]

username checks out (and I hate that I "get" it. thx reddit for that xD)

[@paulbecker7039]

"plasma edging" 💀 ☠ 💀

[@Olikiscrazy]

Hank, the team did an excellent job with this video. I really enjoyed it. Thank you and thanks to the team.

[@Violet_Knight]

Forget AR headsets - would tech like this be able to help near- or farsighted people?

[@Jeff-ss6qt]

That'd be interesting if it can somehow attach to the muscles and use that as an electricity source. At least, assuming that the one molecule thick thing doesn't break apart or embed in something like asbestos.

[@CaedmonOS]

Everyone knows Fresnel as a pretty good guy. He's got great optics.

[@ODISeth]

So what I’m hearing is these would neither be efficient nor useful to put in eyeglasses, BUT it would be really cool

[@mellissadalby1402]

What a minute, you're really a horse? OK, I know it was Dad joke

[@gamechannelminecraft6583]

Hello everyone, good viewing🐼

[@BrandEver117]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="127">2:07</a> Yo I think that's Heceta Head in Oregon

[@mikamekaze]

"He was dead at the time." Not sure how I feel about the implications of this

[@johnnydarling8021]

Well, he was STILL dead at the time.

[@BracaPhoto]

Gravity is a lens also - thinner than 1 molecule ! It surround LIGHT- compressing time creating a lens around light ... the same way we try and calculate Pi - frenel lens Little triangles of "vacuity" - creating a Gravity lens for light to SEE Light Displaces Gravity - i am light as a Feather ❤🎉 God is the LIGHT Peace

[@BracaPhoto]

All this may not be TRUE, but it helps explain alot 😂🎉❤ It even explains why light can only make decisions in a limited Domain - lenses work the same way - only certain sections create coherence

[@EyesOfByes]

New TV tech incoming

[@VampcatVvvvV]

I was today old when I learned the 's' is silent. I've always pronounced it freznell.

[@jaycrew2953]

It’s nuts to me that one of the main components in the exfoliation method is scotch tape 🤣😑 bruh

[@AHotLlama]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="556">9:16</a> probably best not to google "sounding methods"

[@Jobobn1998]

Interesting fact: The smallest lens is one molecule thick, but the (arguably) largest lens is one atom thick. Neutron stars* are, by some definitions, one giant atomic nucleus made primarily out of neutrons, and their extremely high mass allows them to warp space and create gravitational lenses. *I'm not counting black holes since they're, you know, causally disconnected from our reality in weird ways and extremely hard to define in a meaningful way--although they do create gravitational lensing to an extreme degree.

[@fadelbedewi4286]

One problem I do not understand is how do you control the Siri of light using this “lens” because when an atom or electron absorbs a photon and the emits it there is no link between the direction the photon came from and the direction it is emitted to. So it emit it in any direction

[@TheSirGoreaxe]

At first I was like darn, that is not nearly big enough for contact lenses. But looking it up the focal area for contact lenses is only 3-5mm. So they only need to 5x the size and ensure it works with all the colors. Throw in some circuitry and power on a contact lenses and boom! We have better contact lenses with binocular enhancement. Still far away and will be expensive, but still neat!

[@ThePSGgaming]

They stole that from the Graphene guys!! <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="478">7:58</a>

[@mellissadalby1402]

Wait, Shenaniganry? OK

[@jhoughjr1]

Before i even watch this coupd be a powerful tech

[@J.A.Smith2397]

Tks

[@Unchained_Alice]

With how bad my eyes are I need them for glasses. Even getting them extra thin they are still so thick 😭 I struggle to read line 2 of the chart without glasses and line 1 isnt the easiest

[@bhami]

I've never understood: how is it that constructive and destructive interference do not violate conservation of energy?

[@Octa9on]

the energy missing from the areas of destructive interference is always exactly equal to the extra energy in the areas of constructive interference. you always get both. it's impossible to just have one or the other

[@AaronGeo]

The vibrations of the atoms will be enough to shatter it.

[@GoatOfTheWoods]

There's one individual by the name of Markiplier that might be interested in one of these lenses...

[@bensoncheung2801]

👍

[@gerrie2477]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="635">10:35</a> am l the only one who see's the light sabre's first step?

[@ptonpc]

I see.....

[@denverflatpackjedithornton]

Scientists call it a hole..... Jeremy Clarkson would call it The smallest hole.... In the world

[@Iamrightyouarewrong]

For what though?

[@AlfaOxTrot.]

5k views and bro already got colored 💀🙏

[@MarisaElyse]

I love new scishow videos

[@Avendesora]

"Less than a billionth of a METER thick"? Why are we not using millimeters as the base unit here? did you feel the need to exaggerate it to make it sound more impressive?

[@Billionth_Kevin]

because "less than a trillionth of a kilometer" would have been ridiculous

[@Avendesora]

@@Billionth_Kevin I feel like you've got a bit of a bias there, Mr. Billionth

[@Narokkurai]

Because the meter is the SI unit for distance, so for the sake of consistency it's always better to refer back to the base unit. A millimeter is literally just a thousandth of a meter anyways, so to give the length in millimeters would be the same as saying, "Less than a millionth of a thousandth of a meter." Easier to just say, "Billionth of a meter."

[@sween187]

​@@Billionth_Kevinbest response to a question, goes to you , 👏😂

[@johannamarseille5305]

'Cause in the US you gotta find a way to use fractions

[@riannongrubbs4231]

Video is very cool but I just want to say I liked this ad particularly, can’t pinpoint why I like it better than the usual pitch for brilliant etc but I do ❤

[@CatholicSatan]

Could you please use other adjectives besides "super"? The English language is a rich beast with many adjectives you can use.

[@Iamreallyfreakinggay]

Shut up loser

[@SoumyaGuharoy-m9r]

3rd to comment.

[@JesusMarilieie]

This video is the best way to forget all your problems and just laugh. I recommend it to everyone🍓