Taste The Rainbow
May 17, 2020 10:21 AM Subscribe
Researchers from the ETH Zurich university have discovered a sweet gimmick: Iridescent Chocolate.
The rainbow-colour of the chocolate does not affect its edibility and requires no additives or coatings, but is instead created by carefully forming the chocolate in a mould shaped like a diffraction grating, giving the textured surface of the chocolate a sheen similar to a hummingbird or dragonfly.
Just recently, security researcher Samy Kamkar (More famous for his cookies rather than his chocolate) has succeeded in recreating the iridescence at home using an vacuum injection technique.
The rainbow-colour of the chocolate does not affect its edibility and requires no additives or coatings, but is instead created by carefully forming the chocolate in a mould shaped like a diffraction grating, giving the textured surface of the chocolate a sheen similar to a hummingbird or dragonfly.
Just recently, security researcher Samy Kamkar (More famous for his cookies rather than his chocolate) has succeeded in recreating the iridescence at home using an vacuum injection technique.
This happens to be a class of thing that I'm particularly interested in.
You can do a similar trick (if you're careful) with a 3d printer (eg: use a diffraction grating as your print surface, or certain types of "holographic" paper) .
...I have long wondered if a suitable industrial laser could be used to imprint similar structures on the surface of plain steel, but I've never had access to a sufficiently powerful and carefully focused laser. There's another class of surface structure that very strongly repels water, which would also be interesting to investigate. Finally, I believe it's possible to scribe a microscopic pattern on adjoining steel surfaces, allowing you to create a slip-critical connection with reduced bolting effort.
Anyway, I guess the point is that these types of extremely fine surface patterns have broader applications than chocolate, although obviously this is cool and fun as-is.
posted by aramaic at 10:41 AM on May 17, 2020 [4 favorites]
You can do a similar trick (if you're careful) with a 3d printer (eg: use a diffraction grating as your print surface, or certain types of "holographic" paper) .
...I have long wondered if a suitable industrial laser could be used to imprint similar structures on the surface of plain steel, but I've never had access to a sufficiently powerful and carefully focused laser. There's another class of surface structure that very strongly repels water, which would also be interesting to investigate. Finally, I believe it's possible to scribe a microscopic pattern on adjoining steel surfaces, allowing you to create a slip-critical connection with reduced bolting effort.
Anyway, I guess the point is that these types of extremely fine surface patterns have broader applications than chocolate, although obviously this is cool and fun as-is.
posted by aramaic at 10:41 AM on May 17, 2020 [4 favorites]
Structural color is the best!
posted by aubilenon at 10:57 AM on May 17, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by aubilenon at 10:57 AM on May 17, 2020 [2 favorites]
I’m just curious if this can be used to imprint holograms on chocolates/other surfaces
posted by polyhedron at 12:00 PM on May 17, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by polyhedron at 12:00 PM on May 17, 2020 [1 favorite]
Somebody put this on a cannabis edible, it really pulls the room together.
posted by winesong at 12:12 PM on May 17, 2020 [13 favorites]
posted by winesong at 12:12 PM on May 17, 2020 [13 favorites]
Very good youtube tutorial by a guy who did it before
posted by namagomi at 3:08 PM on May 17, 2020 [3 favorites]
posted by namagomi at 3:08 PM on May 17, 2020 [3 favorites]
Applied Science YouTuber creates 3D color holograms on chocolate 16 minutes
posted by Monochrome at 12:20 PM on May 30, 2020
posted by Monochrome at 12:20 PM on May 30, 2020
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posted by Monochrome at 10:30 AM on May 17, 2020