Ben Krasnow is one of the coolest makers I know. From his backyard lab in Redwood City (a stoneโs throw away from Maker Faire โ well, maybe with the aid of a trebuchet) Ben makes things that usually require a lot of money and sophisticated equipment: an electron scanning microscope, silica aerogel, and freeze-dried astronaut ice cream (Iโve tasted it, and itโs spectacular). Ben also builds electromechanical hardware for Valve Corporation, the famous game developers behind Half-Life.
Ben is coming to Maker Fair again this year, and heโll be demonstrating his electron microscope on the Make: Demo Stage on Sunday at 2:30 PM. The rest of the weekend, heโll be showing his work on liquid lenses โthat change focal length based on the electrical potential applied to the lens. This makes use of a phenomenon known as electrowetting.โ See Benโs liquid lens video here.
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