Secretly Incredibly Fascinating: Night Vision Devices

Episode notes

Alex Schmidt and Katie Goldin explore why night vision devices are secretly incredibly fascinating.

Visit http://sifpod.fun/ for research sources, handy links, and this week’s bonus episode.

LINKS FOR KATIE GOLDIN:

RESOURCES USED TO INFORM THE EPISODE’S LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT:

RESEARCH SOURCES:

Seeing in the Dark: The History of Night Vision (Smithsonian Magazine)
The illuminating tech inside night vision goggles, explained (Popular Science)
Ask A Biologist: Rods and Cones of the Human Eye (Arizona State University)
Resources: Infrared Waves (NASA)
Science Questions With Surprising Answers: Do humans give off radiation? (West Texas A&M University)
Why Does Everything Look Green Through Night Vision Goggles? (Mental Floss)
What are the three types of night vision devices? (WolfDash.com)
NVGs in Daylight? Permanent Damage Risk! (WolfDash.com)
‘Predator’ is 30: VFX supe Joel Hynek recalls the days of optical compositing, thermal cameras and that red suit (VFXBlog.com / Ian Failes)
New material may help us build Predator-style thermal vision specs (Ars Technica)
Three-quarters of pedestrian deaths happen after dark. This technology can help change that. (Popular Science)
This is the SNL sketch we describe where ghost hunters see farts through their goggles.
Planet Earth: Amazing Kangaroo Technique to Stay Cool (BBC Earth)
Colour in the collections: reindeer eye (Natural History Museum London)
Cyp27c1 Red-Shifts the Spectral Sensitivity of Photoreceptors by Converting Vitamin A1 into A2 (Current Biology)
How Salmon See the World Anew (Science)
The surprising reason salmon and snakes can see in infrared (BBC Science Focus Magazine)
Shedding Some Light on the Issue: Investigating How Artificial Light at Night Impacts Endangered Salmon (U.S. Geological Survey)
Infrared contact lenses let you see in the dark (Ars Technica)
New Contact Lenses Give Users Super-Vision to See Infrared Light—Even With Their Eyes Closed (Smithsonian Magazine)
Seeing infrared: scientists create contact lenses that grant ‘super-vision’ (The Guardian)
A Color Tube for Home TV Sets Patented by Vladimir Zworykin; Russian-Born Inventor Holds 100 Patents From Fields of Gunnery to Astronomy — Is R. C. A. Honorary Vice President Wide Variety of Ideas Covered By Patents Issued During Week (The New York Times)
Biography: Vladimir Zworykin (Lemelson Center at MIT)
Night Stalkers: U.S. soldiers in Vietnam heard rumors of ghosts; the Viet Cong chalked it up to bad luck. (Smithsonian Air & Space Magazine)
Flying On The QT (Army Aviation Magazine)
Eyes in the Dark: Vietnam-Era Scopes and the Birth of Night Vision (SwampFoxOptics.com)
Original U.S. Army Vietnam Era AN/PVS-2B Starlight Night Vision Scope with Transit Chest (IMA-USA.com)
The First Electronic Baby Monitor Revolutionized Looking After Little Ones in 1938 (PaleoFuture.com)
Zenith Radio Nurse, 1938 (The Henry Ford)
Secretly Incredibly Fascinating: Cathode Ray Tubes
Secretly Incredibly Fascinating: Glow-In-The-Dark Stuff
Secretly Incredibly Fascinating: The Color Red

In this episode...

About the show

A weekly podcast about the history, science, lore and surprises that make everyday things secretly incredibly fascinating. Hosted by comedy writer, emoji creator, and ‘Jeopardy!‘ champion Alex Schmidt. Join Alex & his co-host Katie Goldin for a joyful deep dive into seeing the world a whole new way!