---
title: 'The Weirdest Microscope'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=-NzfTE8RI4w'
video_id: '-NzfTE8RI4w'
date: 2026-06-28
duration_sec: 0
---

# The Weirdest Microscope

> Source: [The Weirdest Microscope](https://youtube.com/watch?v=-NzfTE8RI4w)

## Summary



## Transcript

Have you brushed your teeth?
>> Yes.
>> H Let me see. I made a video about Gel
Site about 2 years ago, and they just
released this new one that goes even
smaller. Its purpose is to take precise
3D measurements of very small things.
But here's what I've been using it for.
I've been comparing fake things to real
things, old things to new things, and
natural structures to synthetic
structures. We discovered loads of
amazing things, and I'm just going to
show you all of them. Like this, for
example, is the grippy surface on a
PlayStation 5 controller. How cool is
that? There's a link to the original
video in the description, but here's a
quick recap of how the thing works. So,
what shape do you think a poppy seed is?
Under a normal microscope, it's hard to
tell because the surface of a poppy seed
is black, but you'd probably assume it
was roughly spherical. But if you could
spray paint it like 50% matte gray, it
would be a lot easier to figure out the
shape of the thing. And that's the idea
behind this weird microscope. It's as if
it gives your subject a temporary coat
of extremely neutral paint. And look,
when an object is the same color all
over and you shine a light on it from
one direction, your brain can easily
figure out the shape based on which bits
are dark and which bits are light. This
object is the same shape, but it's much
harder to get a sense of its dimensions.
But how does the Gelite microscope
achieve this temporary coat of paint?
Well, the camera is behind a gel pad,
which confusingly is red, but the camera
is black and white, so it comes out
looking gray. Here's a large model of
it, so I can show you what I mean. If I
press my finger in on this side, you can
see a gray version of my finger on this
side, and that's what the camera sees.
And there's lights on the inside, so it
can be lit from different angles. And
so, you can really get the sense of the
structure of a poppy seed, for example.
And isn't that amazing? I had no idea
poppy seeds were shaped like that. It's
kind of alien looking. So this way your
eyes can more easily discern the
structure of things. But interestingly,
the software can actually map out in
precise detail the 3D structure of
whatever you press into the gel. More on
that later. Gel site aren't paying me or
anything, by the way. I just wanted to
make a video about it and they said I
could borrow one for a couple of months.
Right, let's have a look at some stuff.
This was the real versus fake example I
showed you earlier. I don't know if you
had any guesses, but this is real frost.
And this is frost from a spray can.
Frost is amazing. Actually, you can see
the six-fold symmetry that arises from
the underlying crystal arrangement of
the water molecules. It's the same
reason snowflakes have six-fold
symmetry, but it's surprising to see
those little turret looking things here
and there. My car gets this spidery
looking frost sometimes. That's pretty
cool. And this is how the frost on
blades of grass look. Actually, crystals
in general are really fun. This is salt
flakes. The symmetry is different
because the underlying crystal structure
is different. So, you end up with right
angles and squares and cubes instead of
hexagons. For comparison, here's fine
pouring salt. You can still see lots of
right angles. I guess they're all little
cubes. I was a bit worried about pushing
something so pointy into the gel, but
actually it seems to fite well. This is
the needle from a record player, for
example. And this is what happens when
we smeared tuna paste on it. If you're
like me and you try to avoid thinking
about the fact that cat tongues are
spiky, well, I I'm sorry I reminded you,
but anyway, this is another spike that I
always wanted to take a proper look at.
You find these on the back of a leaf.
You can hardly see it with the naked
eye, but it has the effect of only being
able to stroke the leaf in one
direction. If you've ever experienced a
one-way leaf, this is why it's like
that. This is what it looks like to
write on gel site with a ballpoint pen.
You can see the ball rolling around. I
guess this is what it feels like to be
paper. And for comparison, here's a
pencil tip. You can see where the
sharpener stopped sharpening. Coral is
surprisingly sharp. Like from a
distance, it looks like a smooth surface
with little holes in it, but it feels
really rough. And you can see why under
a microscope. It's basically a load of
tightly packed spikes. This is another
type of coral and you can see all the
tiny tubes. How cool is that? I like
this one so much I printed it out. But
how was the software able to extract 3D
information from this image? Well,
because that gray color is so even,
there's a direct correlation between the
brightness of a pixel and the steepness
of the slope in that location. But
because the direction of the slope also
affects brightness, the software needs
to take multiple pictures that are lit
from different angles. The 3D
information can then be exported in a 3D
format, which means you can zoom in even
more.
Wait,
wait.
Nature has layer lines. You might have
spotted some interesting structures in
the background of the spiky leaf. And
actually, leaves are really interesting.
You can see this sort of branching even
at a really small scale. They kind of
look like veins. Some leaves don't have
a fractal structure because they're
actually feathers. Fake feathers look
nothing like real feathers, by the way.
Not that you need a microscope to
discern that. But on the subject of fake
and real things, which one of these do
you think is real leather, and which is
pleather? Well, this is the real
leather. You can see those little pits,
which I believe is where the fur was
plucked from the hide. I've not found
any fake leather that tries to replicate
that detail, but it's not always that
easy to tell the difference between
natural and synthetic fibers. Can you
tell, for example, which is real hair
and which is plastic hair from a wig?
This is some wooden furniture and this
is fake wood veneer. The difference is
quite clear. The veneer is perfectly
flat except for the grooves, whereas the
real wood has a general roughness to it
as well. This is a nylon rope and a
cotton rope. The nylon's much smoother.
This is horsehair, which is to say it's
a cello bow. The gel pads don't like
being scraped, but I wanted to see what
it would look like to drag the cello bow
across it. So, I added a bit of
lubricant. That's cool, isn't it? While
we've got lube on the thing, here's
Lycra or spandex being stretched.
And here's Velcro. You can see the hook
and loop in action there. And you can
see where the hook eventually gives way.
Let's have a look at some more synthetic
objects. This is a printed circuit
board.
This is a light bulb filament. You can
see that the coiled up wire is itself
made of a coiled up wire. This is a
pill. This one helps me make videos.
Actually, it's got a clever design that
lets you split the pill in half and then
in half again.
Woven fabrics look really cool,
especially netting type fabrics like
this laundry bag. You can see how all
the different strands are all kind of
hooked together. Here's some woven
metal. And here's a tea strainer.
This is sound waves carved into a disc.
Not sure what that's about. I'm a big
fan of nurling actually. And it looks
really nice up close. These are some of
my favorite knurled objects. Look at
this though. It's like nature's nurling.
Looks very different up close though.
Let's have a look at some more natural
structures. Actually, this is fish
scales. I didn't take this one. Mrs.
Jessica Arbor specifically, it's an
orange throat dart. And the spikes on
the edges of the scales actually helps
to reduce drag. This is a pepperc corn.
And this is some fungus. These are some
more interesting seed varieties, though
poppy seeds are the best in my opinion.
I just want to go on a poppy seed
tangent for a second because they're so
cool. There's very often two different
ways to explain why something is the way
it is in biology. There's the mechanical
reason and the evolutionary reason. The
mechanical reason is that as the seed
forms, the outer layer of cells fit
together like hexagons and pentagons.
The joining walls of the cells are
thick, but the top walls are quite thin.
So, when the poppy seed dries out, those
top walls collapse, and you're just left
with those joining walls. But what
evolutionary pressures push the poppy
seed towards that shape? Well, it's
probably a few things. Seeds need
protection, but in the case of poppy
seeds that are dispersed by the wind,
they also need to be really light. So
instead of a full heavy outer shell,
it's protected by lightweight ridges
instead. And a bit like the dimples on a
golf ball, the rough surface might help
the seeds to be carried further by the
wind. And finally, when the seed does
land, that pitted surface helps to
retain moisture. This is owl poop. Check
out what's inside, though. Well, lots of
fur for a start, but this is probably a
mouse jaw. And there's a bit of spine
there and some tail.
I bought some dead bees on eBay because
I wanted to see the compound eye. That
doesn't really show up, unfortunately.
But it's interesting to see a gray bee
slowly being crushed. And here's a dead
spider.
These shots kind of remind me of horror
movie posters, you know what I mean?
It's often like something being pressed
into fabric. I don't know why, but
anyway, here's a tiny skull that I
found.
I suppose I should try and use this
thing for what it was designed to do.
And actually, in my video about bone
drills, I cut a groove in the nail of my
thumb. There's a nice feature where you
can remove the first order slope, so you
don't have to worry about getting the
angle right when you press it into the
gel. And so now, look, when I analyze
the depth of the groove, I can see that
it's about 300 microns or about.3 mm.
The nail itself is only about.5 mm
thick. So, a couple more takes and I'd
have started to be in trouble. I made a
video about atomic trampolines a while
back. The reason the amorphous metal is
so bouncy is because it doesn't
plastically deform on impact. Compare
that to steel where impacts create these
little divots. You can exaggerate
defects in the software to make them
easier to see. And look, measuring it,
it's only 16 microns deep. And actually,
it's interesting in general to look at
old things versus new things under the
gel site. Here's a fresh razor blade
versus a used one, for example. And
here's an old key versus a new key. You
know, if you bend a wire back and forth,
it eventually snaps. That's metal
fatigue. And look under the gel site,
you can see all these fishes near the
brake point. This is a brand new foot
scraper. And this is after it's been
used.
I'm sorry you had to see that. This is a
scab and this is a scar. See how the
scar tissue is smoother than the skin
around it? Actually, cuticles look
pretty gross, too.
Look at the difference between young
teeth and old teeth. And this is brushed
teeth versus unbrushed. Actually, on the
subject of toothbrushing, this is
toothpaste. See how it's full of little
hard bits that araid your teeth? And
finally, we come full circle. This is an
inter dental brush. And I guess this is
your gums point of view. Kids, I think
you need a new toothbrush. I don't know
what it is about this microscope, but I
just love seeing all the tiny structures
of things with all the glare and
transparency and color information
stripped away. Maybe it's about
understanding the world at a deeper
level. Or maybe it's just how my brain
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