The Thought Emporium is Justin and they’re the guy behind “The Thought Emporium.” They start by saying that they genetically modifying yeast, then baking with them, growing human neurons connected to a computer, and making a cold fire plasma torch. They started this channel back in high school as a way to learn at their own pace, and then share what they learned with the world. Back then, they realized that their problem with school wasn’t the content, it was simply the way it was conveyed. So they started experimenting in their home lab and recording everything they did. They thought that if just 1 person saw their stuff and learned something and maybe were entertained, it would be worth it. And 8 years later, they’re still at it and they couldn’t have done it without the continued support of their amazing audience. A little over a four and a half years ago, they decided to change directions a little bit. Rather than mostly replicating experiments out of textbooks to learn about the basics, they decided they wanted to do real research and show that off instead. This way, people could see that science isn’t a thing that’s confined to shiny expensive labs. Anyone, anywhere could do it, and push human knowledge a little further. And the longer they’ve worked, the more they realized how important open source and transparent science is and the impact it can have. Before they continue, they just want to say a preemptive thank you. If you’ve made it this far, it means you like what they do and care about the continued production of open source science and the videos that go with it. They started this channel back in high school as a way to learn at their own pace, and then share what they learned with the world. Back then, they realized that their problem with school wasn’t the content, it was simply the way it was conveyed. So they started experimenting in their home lab and recording everything they did. They thought that if just 1 person saw their stuff and learned something and maybe were entertained, it would be worth it. And 8 years later, they’re still at it and they couldn’t have done it without the continued support of their amazing audience. A little over a four and a half years ago, they decided to change directions a little bit. Rather than mostly replicating experiments out of textbooks to learn about the basics, they decided they wanted to do real research and show that off instead. This way, people could see that science isn’t a thing that’s confined to shiny expensive labs. Anyone, anywhere could do it, and push human knowledge a little further. And the longer they’ve worked, the more they realized how important open source and transparent science is and the impact it can have. They want to be able to hire more staff to help with the projects, edit the videos and increase the quality exponentially. Beyond that, the money will go towards keeping food on the table, because it’s hard to do science if you don’t eat. Coffee after all, isn’t free. For every minute of screen time, it can take them from 1-8 hours of time in the edit/animation booth. Right now, they’re a one-man operation. And for every 1 video that makes it out, there are 3-4 experiments that either didn’t work, or didn’t make it to the final edit. This represents a huge investment of both time and money on their part. While they try and make their experiments as accessible as possible by trying to only use readily available materials, even the cheapest experiment will take half a dozen tries to get right. This means going through a lot of consumables. And from time to time they like to be able to do experiments that may be a bit more expensive but will also have greater impact. So what will their donations do? Well first and foremost, they’ll help offset the cost for the raw materials to do the experiments. This means they can try more exciting experiments and make more videos more often. Beyond that, they’ll be able to invest in better equipment to record the videos. Things like a new high-definition camera, lighting, mics and more. As the channel grows, they want to be able to hire more staff to help with the projects, edit the videos and increase the quality exponentially. Beyond that, the money will go towards keeping food on the table, because it’s hard to do science if you don’t eat. Coffee after all, isn’t free. They take major inspiration from the inventor of the polio vaccine and try and embody that spirit. They could have patented their work and made millions but knew it was more important to give it to the world. And they try and do the same. Sure they could go down a commercial route with many of the projects, but they’d rather just give them out to the world to use. So all SVGs, plans, plasmid designs, PDFs and any other materials needed to replicate their work are posted for all to use at no cost. As they do more biology work, all the plasmids they make and design will be sold at the cost of producing them for anyone to experiment with
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