Don't miss a chance to see the Cherenkov radiation effect at your local research reactor.<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherenkov_radiation" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherenkov_radiation</a>
If you haven't experienced a spinthariscope, I can highly recommend it. I bought one as a Christmas present for a buddy and we both enjoy its demonstration of radioactivity.
<a href="https://dberard.com/home-built-stm/" rel="nofollow">https://dberard.com/home-built-stm/</a> shows individual atoms.
You won't make one at home, but cloud chambers[^1] reveal individual alpha particle tracks.<p>There's one in the Musée des Arts et Métiers in Paris — blew my mind!<p>[^1]: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_chamber" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_chamber</a><p>Edit: turns out people make these at home <i>all the time.</i> Sick!
You can easily make them at home (source, I did last weekend!).<p>- Dry ice (mine came from something shipped cold)<p>- Dark piece of metal (I used a 3D printer hot bed) on top of dry ice to get cold<p>- IPA vapour (I poured some on a shop towel)<p>- Some transparent container to house it all - I found a glass display cube on the side of the road, fish tanks or Tupperware also work.<p>- Torch or something to provide side lighting<p>Very cool to see evidence of the particles zooming around us, can highly recommend.
This can be done at home with a little effort. Less effort if you can get dry ice easily.<p><a href="https://hackaday.com/2019/01/13/see-the-radioactive-world-with-this-peltier-cloud-chamber/" rel="nofollow">https://hackaday.com/2019/01/13/see-the-radioactive-world-wi...</a>
Well, google for "DIY cloud chamber" did result in quite some entries. Apart from youtube channels, with the first entry a guide from CERN:<p><a href="https://home.cern/news/news/experiments/how-make-your-own-cloud-chamber" rel="nofollow">https://home.cern/news/news/experiments/how-make-your-own-cl...</a>
I tried the same with bananas. Got nothing.
Bananas are like XML that way. If you're not getting the results you want, you're just not using enough of them.
Potassium-40 is not an alpha emitter.