Testing Adam Savage’s New Dissection Microscope

Adam and Will geek out over Adam’s new microscope by putting as many different things as they can think of underneath it, including money, magazines, food, and even Will’s beard. Things get pretty weird at that point.

Comments (31)

31 thoughts on “Testing Adam Savage’s New Dissection Microscope

  1. In the printing samples, the difference in how it looks under magnification is not only about resolution, but also the different angles of the CMYK halftone-screens (which is more likely to account for the rose patterns in the European magazine), the dot gain on certain stocks, etc.

    As a designer, I am always fascinated by these things, and frequently find myself printing things in 20 different ways to find which method looks the best on a certain paper stock, fretting over how certain prints look under magnification.

    Here is a macro-shot of a letterpress postcard I printed a while back, the white shape is an O and the crop here is about 6-7mm wide on the print.

    Edit: it is worth noting that this was printed on a press manufactured in 1873, which still prints sharper type than any modern printing process 🙂

  2. yay! someone else who understands the function of language and isn’t just a grammar nazi who can only see rules.

  3. Not A Clockwork Orange (wrong Kubrick), Will’s close-up blinking eye was the landing scene from 2001: A Space Odyssey

  4. Will drinks so much coffee his skin is yellowing. Hope it’s not jaundice.

    I believe they were referring to the steel eyelid clamps that kept Malcolm McDowell’s eyes open, which Adam apparently has.

  5. I don’t think he has the clamps, but he has tried them. He has mentioned trying them on before, and that they were so painful/uncomfortable that he could only have them on for a second or two.

  6. You guys should consider getting a hold of or borrowing a petrographic microscope and slides. Few things are cooler looking than igneous and metamorphic rocks under thin section.

  7. Nice video,

    Here are some macros shots I took with a set of cheap macro extension tubes. I used a flashlight wrapped in some tissues behind the bill to give it some back-light.

  8. Oh I know he was asking about the Clockwork Orange eyelid clamps – Just saying that the close-up of the eye and periodic blinks looks exactly as it does in the end of 2001.

  9. There are always those thing you say to yourself, “I can’t get that, why would I need a **** “.
    I wish I had gotten it the microscope 🙂

  10. Does this not make anyone want a more powerful microscope?

    Absolutely. Every time I get into the mood to fiddle with microscopes and telescopes I do a price lookup on things that I would like to have for this purpose, and usually I wind up finding that the scopes I want are thousands and thousands of dollars and then I start fretting about light pollution (in the case of telescopes) and then I set the whole idea aside for another year. :’D

    edit- I am also pleased to see that the video invariably wound up at the place it usually does when people are looking at things through microscopes. Anatomy is interesting under focus. As are fluids. Suddenly someone suggests addition live specimens that could be produced in a few minutes which would be really cool to see. And of course the specimen must be fresh, as live specimen is much better to look at than dead. You see. 😉

  11. Oh man the cut to Will for the beard made me laugh so hard.

    Just a “How did I end up in this situation” look and everything.

  12. You guys should take a look at the modernist cuisine book. Apparently they used a special kind of print that gives really great detail.

  13. Not meaning to go one-up here but for laughs here’s a fine-point Bic biro nib under an electron microscope on “low” magnification. Note how the paper fibres and ink crud have gathered around the rim where the 0.5mm ball meets the socket.

    This was done at university when we had access to an electron microscope. I asked the operator if I could put a biro nib under it and he went “sure!” 🙂

    I also wanted to put a whole bunch of other things under it, mounting them all together on a tiny metal plate to avoid having to sputter coat with gold & pump the microscope down, every time. But we didn’t get the time, oh well.

    I’d like to try again though – wonder how much an electron microscope is on eBay..

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