PHOENIX, Ariz., March 16 -- Ken Cardell, a graduate student at the University of Arizona Optical Sciences Center, recently fashioned a polariscope from common objects (paint stirrers, clothespins, sawed-off film canisters, popsicle sticks, photocopies of a protractor and some hot melt glue), neatly solving a major challenge for students in Russell Chipman's optics course: how to hold and rotate several polarizers at one time. 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