polymath maker youtube

polymathmakeryoutube.txt

i prepared this big list of... essentially 
"polymaths who make high tech or foundational things 
and show them using youtube in a clear way". youtube 
has a high concentration of people like this, because 
it along with patreon function as a patronage system, 
creating a place for them to thrive outside academia 
or defense contractors. video also contains a huge 
amount of information that wouldnt be easily accessible 
any other way. and video that's more entertaining than 
a lecture while still being extremely information dense 
and worth just about anyone's time are actually pretty 
plentiful. 
you can almost think of it like immersion learning. 
actually getting your bearings is one of the hardest parts.


applied science 
https://www.youtube.com/@AppliedScience
the king of this space. diy electron microscope, glass chemistry, carbon nanotubes, bizarre machining processes, anything, in a lab notebook style.

tech ingredients
https://www.youtube.com/@TechIngredients
an anonymous retired doctor who i suspect worked on something classified. incredible lecturer in engineering topics. every video is great, ignore the clickbait titles and thumbnails and click anyway. lasers, rockets, refrigeration, acoustics, high voltage

breaking taps 
https://www.youtube.com/@BreakingTaps
microscopy of all kinds, optics, chip manufacturing, high tech manufacturing processes

thought emporium
https://www.youtube.com/@thethoughtemporium
diy genetic engineering, plus some of the same high voltage high vacuum stuff applied science does. nobody else is doing genetic engineering in an accessible way. cured his own lactose intolerance.

huygens optics
https://www.youtube.com/@HuygensOptics
retired dutch engineer who worked on OLEDs. grinds his own mirrors and lenses, can explain optics and light better than your physics teacher, and gets into chip fabrication technologies too.

nighthawkinlight
https://www.youtube.com/@Nighthawkinlight
friendly presentation, very old channel. has an eye towards things that can be done at home without special tools, while managing to make that interesting. has some videos going through the actual experimental process and formulating materials and repeatedly testing. science at its purest.

alphaphoenix
https://www.youtube.com/@AlphaPhoenixChannel
explains physics the way you wish it was explained. extremely valuable demonstrations for building intuition. also plenty of cool materials science.

plasma channel
https://www.youtube.com/@PlasmaChannel
high voltage all the things. tesla coils, easy to digest. basically trying to build the caterpillar drive from hunt for red october.

styropyro
https://www.youtube.com/@styropyro
lasers galore. world record lasers, soviet military surplus, explosive chemistry from the 1930s, intense electricity projects. occasional storm chaser. raises moths. he's not dead because he does the math.

hyperspace pirate
https://www.youtube.com/@HyperspacePirate
delightfully stubborn hobbyist. builds his own high performance cryogenic systems, getting down to very low temperatures from what's in his garage. some chemical synthesis. some analog electronics and fabrication of parts.

nilered
https://www.youtube.com/@NileRed
the singular largest chemistry channel. does all kinds of interesting things at various levels of complexity. great way to start from nothing. try the ferrofluid or superconductor videos.

this old tony
https://www.youtube.com/@ThisOldTony
extremely entertaining but still very informative machining channel. this is where to start if you want to stop being confused when you see a lathe, a milling machine, or a welder.

machine thinking
https://www.youtube.com/@machinethinking
how did we get from craftsmen and blacksmiths hammering pieces of metal or trimming chunks of wood to highly precise tools? who made the first modern screw threads? what does it mean to have a flat surface? all about that history here.

ox tools
https://www.youtube.com/@oxtoolco
like a shop teacher, except he works for lawrence berkeley national lab and knows everything there is to know about working with metal. great teacher.

clickspring
https://www.youtube.com/@Clickspring
australian hobbyist watchmaker, but you could hardly call him a hobbyist. built a replica of the antikythera mechanism from the original scans, using as close to period accurate techniques as he could. impeccable everything, including the video editing. has been called "machine porn"

adam savage's tested
https://www.youtube.com/@tested
adam savage's channel. after mythbusters, he chilled out and became the ultimate maker of things, in skills and in what he can do in his shop. many excellent lessons, about making things or otherwise. watch the one day builds.