Looking online apparently this damages the magnetron, but no one has found out why precisely. There are some pop-culture explanations that the reflected energy overloads the magnetron and so on, but I don't think anyone has done the parallel what this team has done to actually say what happens to the magnetron.
Everyone do yourselves a favor--go to a thrift store and buy a few microwaves. Find a field, string a hundred feet of extension cords from an outlet and start microwaving all the things your not suppose to.
My favorites:
Ivory soap--bubbles outward;
Grapes--see article;
Incandescent lightbulb --lights up;
Wine bottle--explodes, do this last
Also lots of things you think would be bad do nothing: spray paint can, soup can, silverware, cup of gas with aluminum foil in it.
Hit the [empty] wine bottle with a propane torch till a spot is glowing red before you start nuking it ... room temp glass is an insulator, hot glass conducts!
> The key, it seems, is cramming the energy present in microwaves into a very tiny space—the point of contact between the objects in question. In your garden-variety microwave oven, microwaves have a wavelength of about 12.5 cm. But adjoining grapes (which are full of water that can absorb said microwaves) can concentrate the energy within into a region where the two spheres touch, which is no more than a couple millimeters wide. This creates a very strong, very condensed electric field at their interface—a pocket of ammo powerful enough to liberate negatively-charged electrons from, say, the salts naturally present in grapes and other fruits.
This is the answer from the article. Not much else is said about the “how” piece
Not to worry. In high school, my friend and I used the cafeteria microwave for this particular experiment. It was only a modest, baby fire… and some yelling from a teacher. Miraculously no detention. But science was done on that day.
The PNAS article has more photos and videos https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1818350116
Looking online apparently this damages the magnetron, but no one has found out why precisely. There are some pop-culture explanations that the reflected energy overloads the magnetron and so on, but I don't think anyone has done the parallel what this team has done to actually say what happens to the magnetron.
The PI has a website https://www.aaronslepkov.com/research but nothing new about this stuff there. I'm curious.
We know now why the plasma forms. I hope they're able to explain why the magnetron breaks.
Arcing?
How would one point camera at the magnetron and still keep it safe
https://old.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/3ittew/what_is_...
(The plasma acts as a sort of antenna-- we maybe don't want 2 magnetrons pointing at each other :)
Everyone do yourselves a favor--go to a thrift store and buy a few microwaves. Find a field, string a hundred feet of extension cords from an outlet and start microwaving all the things your not suppose to.
My favorites: Ivory soap--bubbles outward; Grapes--see article; Incandescent lightbulb --lights up; Wine bottle--explodes, do this last
Also lots of things you think would be bad do nothing: spray paint can, soup can, silverware, cup of gas with aluminum foil in it.
Hit the [empty] wine bottle with a propane torch till a spot is glowing red before you start nuking it ... room temp glass is an insulator, hot glass conducts!
It's an intersting question if this has also been tried with US embassies https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/03/10/russians-a...
Watching this classic channel may be safer https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLU4IMu04MIlJgB6Aaj07q-5iX...
CD - nice crackling effect
Draw on paper with a lead pencil - it burns out the pencil lines. Perfect for making pirate maps.
Those AOL CD's or any useless DVD are good candidates to nuke with scintillating results!
If you still have AOL cd's, you might be a hoarder.
The smell from those though is quite something
Veritasium has a great video on this: https://youtu.be/wCrtk-pyP0I
And this is when we realize that the title deserves a [2019] tag.
> The key, it seems, is cramming the energy present in microwaves into a very tiny space—the point of contact between the objects in question. In your garden-variety microwave oven, microwaves have a wavelength of about 12.5 cm. But adjoining grapes (which are full of water that can absorb said microwaves) can concentrate the energy within into a region where the two spheres touch, which is no more than a couple millimeters wide. This creates a very strong, very condensed electric field at their interface—a pocket of ammo powerful enough to liberate negatively-charged electrons from, say, the salts naturally present in grapes and other fruits.
This is the answer from the article. Not much else is said about the “how” piece
This is the paper cited: https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.1818350116
I'd like to think that some day in the near to mid future microwaving grapes or other spheres will be a way to start a fusion reactor or similar.
Maybe that's what the fuel pellets in The Expanse really are. https://expanse.fandom.com/wiki/Fuel_pellets
The what drive
Predates that awful guy being so well known. Unfortunate but doesn't seem worth retconning.
Gotta feel bad for all the Epsteins, Savilles, Adolfs and Isises.
Ian Watkins the Steps guy really takes the cake for a name suddenly becoming rather unfortunate one day.
Don’t worry about Adolf, he’s doing pretty well.
https://www.euronews.com/2025/11/27/adolf-hitlers-namesake-t...
This is the fragment from the show on the origin of the Epstein fusion drive, leading to the immediate death of the inventor:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1lS_WxQ3zeU
The actor played the werewolf from the Canadian remake of Being Human.
What is this diddy blud doing
pro tip: do not try this on a microwave you want to keep. if you are successful you will likely cause a fire in your microwave. (it is fun, though).
Not to worry. In high school, my friend and I used the cafeteria microwave for this particular experiment. It was only a modest, baby fire… and some yelling from a teacher. Miraculously no detention. But science was done on that day.
I thought that this sort of science was usually beer fuelled, late in the party at someone else’s house.
"Remember kids, the only difference between screwing around and science is writing it down."
If you did a report, it counts as science.
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