How to Make Carbon Nanotubes

So I've been reading around, and I came across some methodology that suggested it is relatively straightforward to grow short carbon nanotubes. According to their recipe:

1) Construct vacuum chamber with heavy-duty anode and cathode within.

2) Bridge electrodes with carbon rod, evacuate atmosphere from chamber.

3) Arc 220V electricity through the carbon rod.

4) Carbon nanotubes will grow upon the anode.

5) Modulate chemical properties of carbon nanotubes by changing the atmosphere of the vacuum chamber. Apparently it's not so much important that there be no atmosphere as it is that there be no oxygen, which is fine by me as it is easier to build. Hydrogen makes sweeter nanotubes, while a nitrogen mix makes for more bitter ones.

It should probably be noted that I don't exactly yet know what it is I'm going to do with carbon nanotubes once I've grown them--in fact, that's an understatement, I have no clue--but that's not likely to stop me here. Now all I have to figure out is how to build a "vacuum" chamber. Maybe I can bribe a hacker with muffins to suck all the air out through a scuba mask regulator...

Food Hacking 1

Unfortunately these were so delicious that I forgot to take a picture and by the time I did remember they were all gone. This is a recipe for Advanced Cooking Idiots that I invented yesterday, and I hope you find it as tasty as I and my guests did.

Cinnamon Radishes

Ingredients:
1kg radishes
1 bag cinnamon chips
3 eggs
1 glop of breadcrumbs
oil

1) Wash radishes thoroughly.
2) Boil radishes until slightly soft. Drain and let cool.
3) Cut off top sprout of each radish and use end of a potato peeler to excavate a narrow cavity.
4) Stuff as many cinnamon chips into that cavity as will stay.
5) Roll around in beaten eggs.
6) Roll around in breadcrumbs until well-coated.
7) Fry in 4cm hot oil, turning as needed, until evenly golden-brown.
8) Remove from oil with slotted spoon, shake off excess oil.
9) Serve.

Not too complicated, but sort of laborious. These will be crunchy on the outside, and the tart starchiness of the radish will both offset and complement the sweet kick of the cinnamon melted inside. Best served with a dollop of Sour Pepper Sauce on top.

Sour Pepper Sauce*

Ingredients:
500ml ketchup
2 fat limes
100ml soy sauce
100ml Thai pepper sauce
2g tumeric
1.5g coriander
3g ancho chili powder
2g ginger
1.5g salt
1.5g black pepper
1g cardamom

1) Stir all wet ingredients and powder together. Bring to an vituperous boil.
2) Squeeze in all juice from limes.
3) Continue stirring intermittently at a high boil until the sugars in the ketchup begin to carmelize and turn the whole sauce a ruddy brown.
4) Cover and simmer for 30min.
5) Remove from heat and refrigerate overnight.
6) Serve cold.

This will be both hot and smooth with a nose tingle. It's is highly acidic, so exercise caution and titrate with base in such a case as indigestion develops. Pepto-Bismol may be used as a base.

*Also an effective way to clear one's sinuses.

Muffin Ravioli

In theory, ravioli are watertight. So maybe this will work. But I'm not certain.

Background:
I like food. I like science and the engineering/hacking methodologies. But I know it's not a good idea to eat off of labware, so the natural solution is to hack food. To this end, I am hosting a food hacking potluck with many of the local hackers this coming weekend*, and I've been trying to figure out what to make.

Experimental Aim:
Essentially, I want to make blueberry muffin ravioli. I will serve it in a mango avocado basil reduction. Now, making either raviolis from scratch or muffins from scratch is relatively straightforward, but combining them so that the ravioli is still pasta-ey and the muffin is still muffiny is an issue. Will pasta cook if I just bake it in the oven? Or do I have to boil it first? I know from literature research that lasagna noodles must be boiled before being baked. It is possible that I could blanch the muffin batter-filled raviolis in boiling water and then bake them, but I am concerned that this would lead to leathery pasta shells. I mean, honestly, I think my best bet is to cook the ravioli squares first without muffin batter, fill them, seal them, and then bake them moist.

What do more experienced cooks think?

If this falls flat, I have a backup plan: caramel-filled radishes breaded, fried and then served with a sour pepper sauce.

*I will be posting pictures and recipes of the things that turn out tasty.

Theory vs. Practice

In theory, a flex sensor is simple. It is just a bit of resistive material, like anti-static plastic sheeting, sandwiched between 2 bits of copper laminate and squished inside some heat-shrink tubing. There are many things that I would like to build of of this. First up as a prototype is building flexible antennae for an Atari Punk Circuit to modulate the sound based on how they are moved about. Then I want to make a suit out of them at all my major bendy points and route them through a Freeduino into a MIDI to have an instrument suit. I think it'll be neat to be able to make roaring bass lines just by waving my arms about wildly, which is how I normally dance anyhow.

In practice, however, securing the copper laminate has been more difficult than expected. Turns out there are a lot more different types of copper foils than I had ever expected and I'm not sure exactly which one would suit my purposes best. And while we're on practice vs. theory, it turns out that Ethernet cables are much easier to make into complex braids than 16G aluminum wire. While a 4² braid of Ethernet does look cool, it is not a torc.

Electricity

A recent All Hands Active (the hackerspace) clean-up/reorganization night. That wall to my right is entirely covered in whiteboard, and it is awesome.

Every once in a while it's a good idea to be reminded that electricity, while awesome and good, can also be very painful. Turns out that the lamp in my left hand there had frayed and exposed wires wires up top, so when I plugged it in with the other hand it gave me a nice shock. This is not at all the first time I have been electrically shocked and it was by no means the worst, but it's still a good reminder that voltage is not just an abstract number.

I have been shocked with 120V many times. The worst was when I was in a music supply store testing out a nice little used Fender tube amp. It had nice tone, but the 2 10" speakers at 250W just didn't provide the grumble that I wanted (I later got a 400W 1 15" speaker with tweeter amp to satisfy this, which later was stolen from me and I do often miss it because that thing could roar). So I reached to the back of the unfamiliar amp to turn it off, and promptly found that the exposed vacuum tubes had been engineered right next to the on/off switch and, lucky me!, they were loose and kindly delivered a searing shock that knocked me flat on my ass and out of breath. Unfortunately, so far as I am able to discern, this did not result in the development of any superpowers. Maybe I need more volts?

Voltage!!!