yElixir Labs · A thin-film physicist's science content studio
Science explainer videos, multilingual localization and computed visualizations, made by a physicist. Even the coater in Fig. 1 is not decoration: every time it lays down a layer, it recomputes the lens's reflectance and color with a thin-film interference model.
Press a button or the figure to open the shutter and lay down the next layer. With the figure focused, Enter deposits and R puts in a new lens.
Idle · deposition time at the assumed rates 0 min 00 s
The colors and numbers in the figure and both charts below come from one model. High-index (H) and low-index (L) layers, each a quarter wave thick at 550 nm, are stacked in turn on the lens.
Reflectance measured at 550 nm, plotted against the thickness deposited so far. The curve turns exactly when a layer reaches a quarter wave, which is why coaters with optical monitoring close the shutter at these turning points.
Reflectance of the whole stack, computed from 380 to 780 nm. As H and L layers alternate, the reflection band around 550 nm grows taller and steeper, and the lens color follows the band.
Three kinds of work. Whichever it is, a physicist checks every claim and number before it reaches the screen.
Explainer videos in which a physicist has reviewed every claim in the script. Each week, one long-form video and five Shorts on the same topic come out together as a series.
Production pipeline: gpt-image keyframesGrok motionElevenLabs narrationPython compositing
Published videos · as of 16 October 2026KO long-form 3 · Shorts 15 / EN long-form 3 · Shorts 14 / JA long-form 3 · Shorts 15
The same story comes out in Korean, English and Japanese at the same time. Three channels have run on the same schedule since 28 September 2026, and Chinese is in preparation.
Total channel views · as of 16 October 2026KO 13,387 · JA 5,798 · EN 1,213
Physical models turned into interactive visualizations and research software that run right in the browser. As in Fig. 1, the numbers and colors on screen come straight from the model. A browser-based thin-film designer is in development.
Published exampleMega Man X Bench · six AI models compared on one prompt
Each topic becomes one long-form video and five Shorts, published in three languages. Below are the English long-form videos so far; press one to play it right here.
Where does the water on a cold can come from? We follow invisible water vapor in the room as it turns to liquid on surfaces colder than the air's dew point, then connect it to white breath, fogged windows and floating clouds. Finally, we look at the two ways tiny cloud droplets become raindrops: by colliding and merging, or by growing as ice.
The air at an open fridge door feels cool, but will it cool the whole room? We separate heat from temperature and follow refrigerant through evaporation, compression, condensation and expansion. Cold-feeling metal, fans, outdoor AC units and winter heat pumps reveal different routes for heat.
The sky is blue, sunsets are red, and a soap bubble with no dye in it shimmers with rainbow colors. We recreate a sky and a sunset in one tank of milky water, then visit Mars where sunsets turn blue, and find out why clouds are white, why a double rainbow is flipped, and why the top of a bubble turns black. Color is not painted on things; it is the way light meets matter.
See all episodes and simulations
Videos and visualizations go through the same four steps. Below each dashed line is what Fig. 1 on this page actually went through.
First decide what to explain, to whom and how far. This is where we separate what may be simplified from what may not.
In Fig. 1Show a lens coating that strongly reflects 550 nm green light.
Build a model that can compute every number and picture on screen, and write its assumptions in the caption.
In Fig. 1Characteristic matrix method, H 2.10 · L 1.46 · glass 1.52
Videos go through an automated production pipeline; visualizations are written as browser code. Every language version comes from one source.
In Fig. 1Live computation wired into a 63-part isometric drawing
Before release, a physicist checks every claim and number.
In Fig. 1Checked that the monitor curve turns at the end of every layer and that 15 layers reach 99.2%
We take requests for videos, localization and computed visualizations by email. Tell us the topic, the timeline and the languages you need.