This week is science heavy with a touch of hot chocolate!

I enjoy Veritasium, and the video about origami and engineering is awesome. I had no idea there were only maybe 200 patterns for most of origami’s history, then that exploded to tens of thousands of documented patterns sometime in the last 50 or 60 years!

There’s a lot of cool engineering in this video, but I got excited about the origami lamp at 10:43. Can I make that on my CNC by v-carving grooves in the right places? What materials could I use? Am I going to have to make something like this?! Yes. Of course I am.

Science and photography. This is a great combination. This week, Physics Girl took a trip to see part of the world’s largest cameras being assembled.

She got to see one of the lenses: a monstrosity around 5’ in diameter! She also got to see the sensor. That’s the part I geeked out about.

This telescope will use an array of CCD sensors. They look like they’re square and about 4” to a side. I’m intrigued, because they’re not using CMOS sensors.

CCD sensors are superior to CMOS sensors, but the ubiquity of camera phones has accelerated CMOS research at a tremendous rate. CMOS sensors are cheaper, and cell phone manufacturers have been pushing that cheaper tech harder and harder every year. There was a tipping point nearly 20 years ago when these advances in CMOS sensor tech made CMOS as good or better than consumer-grade CCD sensors.

I guess that when you’re spending tens of millions of dollars on a camera, you can use custom CCD sensors!

NOTE: I didn’t thoroughly fact-check that 20-year figure. It is close enough for me.

I enjoy hot cocoa. Not as much as I enjoy a good latte, but Miss Silvia doesn’t just make a good latte. Her steam wand is great for making hot chocolate, too. That steamed, airy milk you use for a latte gives hot cocoa a great texture!

I’ve tried several recipes: various blends of whole milk and heavy cream, different cocoa powders, and even melting candy bars. Babish gave me a couple of new ideas to try this winter!

The video opens with Flanders making a hot cocoa for Bart. I remember seeing this episode on TV: hot chocolate, lots of whipped cream, chocolate shavings, a graham cracker, and then that freshly toasted marshmallow on top. It looks amazing, even in a cartoon!