You’re deep in the forest, pleasantly exhausted after a long hike, absorbing the whisper of wind through towering evergreens and the distant vistas of dazzling snow-capped peaks. Away from digital noise, nature heals your overwhelmed mind and soothes your tattered soul. It’s a “touch grass” moment. You connect to the world around you by running your fingers over the rough bark of a thousand-year-old tree or trailing them through an icy stream where the water is so crystal clear, you can count every rounded stone. At camp, with the crackle of a fire warming your back, the golden light of the setting sun catches the flash of silver-scaled fish as they leap into your world just above the surface of theirs. Warm and satiated from a delicious meal, you crawl into your tent and down sleeping bag, lulled by night sounds—crickets, water burbling over rocks, and the susurration of a gentle breeze. Every muscle in your body melts as you drift off to sleep, a smile lingering on your lips.
You jolt awake. The forest—deathly silent. Primal terror floods your veins as something—you don’t know what—triggers an ancient flight response in your brain. Trembling, you raise your thermal scope to the tent opening, expecting the hot silhouette of a bear, a wolf, or a cougar—
A massive red heat signature explodes on your screen! Your heart stops. Every hair on your body painfully electrifies. At the clearing’s edge stands something seven feet tall, unclothed, bipedal—its eye sockets burning white-hot in your scope. You lock gazes for an eternity … before it turns, shambling silently away until its heat signature vanishes into nothingness.
The imager slips from your nerveless fingers. You never believed until now—but you just came face-to-face with Bigfoot.
And you have proof! You’ll be famous! You pick up your thermal camera to watch your footage and—
Son of a biscuit.
You forgot to hit record.
Cryptozoology
Cryptozoology: The Cambridge Dictionary defines it as “the attempt to find, describe, and discover creatures that appear in stories and that some people believe exist or say they have seen but that have never been proven to exist.”
Cryptozoology is big business in the entertainment industry. If you’ve ever watched a TV show about hunting the Yeti in Tibet, finding Sasquatch in the Pacific Northwest, tracking the Skunk Ape in Florida, or investigating legends like the Hairy Man from the Tule River Yokuts or los Vigilantes Oscuros (Dark Watchers) told to Spanish explorers—or dozens of other Native American names for this mysterious massive, hairy ape-like creature—you understand just how deeply Bigfoot has penetrated multiple cultures’ lore.
To accommodate this fascination, a whole cottage industry has built up to support these cryptid hunts—and that’s where germanium (Ge), our periodic table of MYSTERY element, comes into play. But to understand why germanium matters, you need to know something about its very unique properties.
Germanium: The Element of Mystery
Germanium is a hard, brittle, silvery-white metalloid—intermediate to typical metals like silver (Ag) and typical nonmetals like silicon (Si). It has an atomic number of 32 and an atomic weight of 72.630 and sits between gallium (Ga) and arsenic (As) in period 4. It’s the 50th most abundant element in Earth’s crust. Germanium is highly reactive and forms minerals with other elements, so it must be purified before use.
It was predicted to exist in 1869 by Dmitri Mendeleev (the guy who “created” the periodic table) and finally discovered by Clemens Winkler in 1886. Winkler named the new element germanium after his home country—starting a long legacy of naming elements after countries: for example, francium (Fr), polonium (Po) after Poland, americium (Am) for America, and nihonium (Nh) named after Japan.
Germanium’s Link to Bigfoot
This is where germanium connects back to Bigfoot: germanium purified to 99.999% can be sliced and polished into circular lenses that serve as the foundation for infrared optics in thermal imaging systems—PERFECT for Bigfoot hunting! A bit expensive, but hey—everyone should have an absorbing hobby, amiright? (And check out ghost hunting or regular hunting hunting too.)
Visible Light and How Humans See
But how do germanium infrared optics work? Glad you asked. First, we must talk about visible light and how humans see.
Our eyes absorb reflected energy in the form of electromagnetic waves, but only within specific wavelengths we call visible light. The absorption of visible light excites molecules in our eyes via energy carried by electromagnetic waves. That energy is converted into electrochemical signals using light-sensitive pigments in rod and cone cells at the back of the eye. These signals then travel to our brain’s visual cortex via the optic nerve, and presto! The brain assembles them into images. Truly astounding.
Electromagnetic Waves: From Radio Waves to Gamma Rays
Electromagnetic waves (EM) vary widely:
- Radio waves are HUGE—from 1 mm (0.04 inches) up to 100 kilometers (~62 miles)—and carry very little energy.
- Gamma rays are tiny (<0.01 nanometers) but pack dangerous amounts of energy capable of damaging molecular structures by stripping electrons away.
Visible light occupies only a small part of this spectrum—wavelengths range from ~700 nm for red light to ~400 nm for violet light. These moderate-energy waves excite pigments in rod and cone cells:
- Humans typically have three types of cones sensitive to red, blue, and green light.
- Rod cells are highly sensitive to low light but cannot detect color.
Here’s where things get interesting: humans cannot visually see EM waves outside visible wavelengths, like ultraviolet (<380 nm) or infrared (>700 nm). Some animals (and very rarely some female humans) can see ultraviolet light due to having a fourth cone type (e.g., birds and bees). But other animals, for example, dogs, lack full-color vision because they only have two types of cones, similar to red-green color blindness in humans.
Infrared electromagnetic waves (700 nm–1 mm), however, are detected as heat because molecules vibrate when they absorb infrared radiation. Some animals—like snakes—have developed specialized heat sensors rather than vision to detect the infrared radiation of warm-blooded prey animals.
Why Germanium is perfect for infrared optics
If you try looking through pure germanium lenses with your eyes, you’ll see nothing. Visible light cannot penetrate pure germanium lenses, but infrared wavelengths CAN travel through them. This makes germanium lenses ideal for detecting heat signatures.
When germanium lenses are used in thermal or infrared imaging cameras, these devices convert heat signatures into visual images on screens that humans can see. Which means, in the cooler nighttime temperatures of forests, warm-blooded creatures stand out clearly against their surroundings.
And voilà—Bigfoot is stalking you through the trees!
But this time, remember to hit record.
If you’d like to see how a thermal camera works, watch this History of Simple Things YouTube video: How Does a Thermal Imaging Camera Work?
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