oh! i have something way cooler for #3. i learned how opals are made today! i had no clue how cool opals were until i took a materials science class, i guess. they are made of tiny little glass spheres in a close-packed arrangement! that's why they reflect all kinds of colors -- the diameter of the spheres is roughly the wavelength of visible light.
apparently they're quite easy to synthesize, and there is some reallyfuckingcool research going on that uses them for optics. i love when professors talk about their own research! now i want to be a materials scientist!
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apparently they're quite easy to synthesize, and there is some reallyfuckingcool research going on that uses them for optics. i love when professors talk about their own research! now i want to be a materials scientist!