HDR Photography
The reclaiming of Kilmainham Gaol for some better use than supporting English imperialism has included its use in a variety of artistic projects. Those include the location for various films (more on that in an upcoming post), as well as for art installations like this odd twig sphere inside a cell.
Over the course of the past two years, I’ve used OpenSCAD to design a gas/vacuum cell that can support a pressed silica nanoparticle pellet in front of a variety of spectroscopy systems. The core of the cell was 3D printed in aluminum by Shapeways, with some subsequent facing on our lathe to get good seals with the O-rings. This first version is designed to fit into our fluorimeter.
After using the first cell for a year, I realized I also wanted to be able to attach it to a fiber-optic-based spectrometer. Here, you can see the second cell attached to our Schlenk line.
This is another photograph from a lab in the Charles Harris Group at UC Berkeley. I previously photographed this effusion cell apparatus from an orthogonal orientation, but I also found this shot at its long axis intriguing. The sense of complexity and purpose, but also the sense of aesthetic minimalism, always attracts me to physics apparatuses.
This is the tail-end of the multi-cell system used in my research group to apply monolayers (one molecule thick) to single crystals of silver. It’s a bit amazing how such a wild sentence can become mundane with years of exposure. In any case, I really love the intricacy and attention that has been applied to every bolt and wire; scientific equipment is the ultimate in utilitarian design.
Decaseconds 