StarTalk Radio - Maker Mix, with Bill Nye (Part 1) – StarTalk All-Stars

Episode Date: December 20, 2016

Makers of the world, unite! Bill Nye and Chuck Nice roll up their sleeves to answer Cosmic Queries about the maker movement, including 3d printing of tools, food, human joints and organs; nanotechnology; ISRU and colonizing Mars; STEM vs. STEAM; and more.NOTE: StarTalk All-Access subscribers can watch or listen to this entire episode commercial-free. Find out more at https://www.startalkradio.net/startalk-all-access/ Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ on Apple Podcasts to listen to new episodes ad-free and a whole week early.

This is StarTalk. Welcome, welcome to StarTalk Radio. I'm your host, Bill Nye, and this special segment of Cosmic Queries, Maker Edition, is brought to you by Google. Be sure to check out their website at makingsciencewithgoogle.com. Now, I try to pull back everybody because I'm not alone here. No, no. I'm with world citizen Chuck Nice. Chuck, how you doing?

Hey, Bill. How are you? I'm feeling great because this is a special edition. Yes, it is a special edition. This is the maker edition. The maker edition. So these are people that make things.

Yes. All of these people are progenitors of some sort in one way or another. Progenitors. Yes. Could be progenitrixes. Ah, look at you. Progenitrices. So with all this said, these are people that make stuff. That's what we do in engineering. We use science to build things and solve problems. What is our first query? Well, let's get into our first query. And it's actually one of our Patreon patrons. This is from Terrico Pottery, a potter living in St. Joseph, Minnesota. So he indeed is a maker with a question about making. He makes pottery.

He makes pottery. Yes. St. Joe M.I. And St. Joe M.I. So this is what he says. M.N. M.N. M.N. Sorry. Sorry, you're right. Oh, God, what a faux pas.I. And St. Joe M.I. So this is what he says. M.N., M.N. M.N., sorry. Sorry, you're right.

Oh, God, what a faux pas. The people at the Mall of America are hating us right now. Here's what he says. What are your thoughts, Bill, on changing the STEM field to STEAM by adding ART into the acronym. Companies like Apple Computers and Tesla Motors advance STEM fields by creating artistically designed products that people resonate with worldwide. Do they provide evidence that ART might play an important role in getting more people excited about scientific progress?

And the short answer is yes. Uh-huh. So I have STEAM is fine. Science, technology, engineering, ART, and math. That's fine. Uh-huh. So Steam is fine. Science, technology, engineering, art, and math. That's fine. That's great. Yeah. And by the way, when you make products, you want them to look cool.

And I think this is why, just to name names, this is why Google is successful. Yeah. You click on the Google main page and there's not anything on it. Except Google. It's just this beautiful minimalist thing. And that's why Apple products are so popular, is they look good. Yeah. So you certainly want products to look good. If I'm going to buy pottery,

be it in Minnesota or anywhere else, I want it to look nice. Yes. I want my pottery phone case for my iPhone. Oh, that would be brittle. But who knows where that will lead? The guy with skills to make pottery may be able to make all sorts of things.

Yes. Because he designs or makes shapes. So now, when you look at design as an element of engineering, there's in art, they say form follows function. They say that in architecture, too. Yes. So now, does that work when you're engineering? Like, okay, you're building a plane. Look at an airplane. Aren't they good looking? Yes, but they weren't always.

When you look back at the old Sockwood Camels, the old biplanes. They were kind of, in that era, they were the coolest thing going because they flew. Right. So, you're the guy with the issue. Flying itself was pretty cool cool still is pretty cool so uh form that's one of the things by the way not changing the subject from pottery and steam right but that's one of the things that's really appealing for me about airplanes is everything on there has to do something right there's very it's very hard to add stuff to planes it doesn't absolutely have to be there because they get too heavy yes so um So I'm a big fan of STEAM writ large.

I just don't want it to get to the point where all of school becomes an acronym. You know what I mean? But right now, I guess there's a conflict between funding science, technology, engineering, and math and funding art. You have to fund both. Right. So STEAM it is. STEAM on, if you will. Not STE and math, and funding art. You have to fund both. Right. So steam it is. Steam on, if you will.

Not steampunk. Steampunk never appealed to me. Really? No. Come on. The reason is it's not real. Oh. Well, I guess you're right.

When you look at it from the actual mechanical standpoint, none of those inventions are real. The helium balloons wouldn't really fly. Yeah. The steam-powered wheelchair wouldn't really fly yeah the steam-powered wheelchair wouldn't really run yeah it just it's so that just always took me out of it a little bit they make for great conventions oh yeah yeah you know when you see those people at the hotel and they've got their goggles on and their their little caps and their trench coats and are you

talking from personal experience here chuck Chuck? I'm just saying. No, you're just saying. It's not you. I'm just saying. If you happen to be at the New York Hilton in October and you see a black guy wearing goggles at a steampunk convention, it might be Chuck Nice. That's all you're saying. Let's try another query.

Good question, Steam Man at Potter in Minnesota. Let's move on to Matt Eli Who comes to us from Facebook and Bay City, Texas And Matt Eli wants to know this How are we going to print 3D stuff on Mars Out of native material there Or in the clouds of Venus

Or on the moon Or in the clouds of Venus or on the moon or in the asteroid belt. So is it necessary to mine materials from that area or from that place to use as 3D print material? This is a great question, but we may be mixing. The modern verb everybody loves, Chuck, is conflating. Ah, conflating. Could be, not saying we are, conflating 3D printing in space with in situ resource utilization. All right.

ISRU. Okay. See, now you got me right there. Say that again because I don't even know what you just said there. So everybody in the Mars community loves this acronym. Four-letter acronym. I-S-R-U. In-situ resource utilization.

In-situ resource utilization. In the situation. There you are on the surface of Mars. In the situation. Utilizing, which is another word we used to say, using the resources there. So it's a big plan. I've got to grow some sprouts. Well, to scrape up, that's right, in the Martian.

You can scrape the book or the movie. You scrape up some Martian soil and use chemistry to make rocket fuel out of it. Get the oxygen out of it. Maybe get the iron, recombine them, and they burn, and off you go. And on Mars, I think it would be lower pitch. But anyway, it's a great idea, a fine idea. Meanwhile, a recent study at NASA indicates that it's probably better to take material to make objects with a 3D printer, which seemed to work well enough in zero gravity or microgravity.

with a 3D printer, which seemed to work well enough in zero gravity or microgravity. And so instead of taking surgical scissors, a scalpel, what else do you take? Sponges, sutures, suture needles. You make all that if you need it. You're ready to make it. So now at that point, kind of like a little more of a Star Trek, like, replicator-type deal. But 3D printers are virtually replicators, man. It's amazing now. And this is now.

What year is this? 2016. We scan objects with hologram-style lasers, create a three-dimensional image of it, then use that three-dimensional image to print it, is the verb, or additively manufacture it. And so this is an exciting time. But making rocket fuel out of the Martian surface, I'm not sure it's quite the same thing as is intended by traditional space-borne 3D printing. However, can't see why these two things wouldn't merge one day. Right. So there's not really a need to choose. It's not a selfish choice.

It'll be organic, pun intended. It'll come from the Martian surface. But, you know, getting to the Martian surface is not trivial. Having a colony there is probably a real hassle. But I want to send people there to look for signs of life. And if those people need 3D printing additive manufacturer technology to get it done economically, let's go. So if you were to send, let's say, you know, sending people is a real pain in the butt. It's expensive and never been done. And, you know, people are a pain in the butt.

I mean, have you met people? Yes. Have you met them? Some of my best friends. Or dogs. Is there still a need if you were to send autonomous machines that can work on their own, and then would they still be able to utilize the... That's the whole idea. So the Mars 2020 rover, which does not have a name yet, we hope to do this experiment.

Try to scrape up Martian soil and make it into rocket fuel. Be cool. That would be very cool. So it can be done robotically. It is believed. And so the chemistry, and you do simulations with simulant soil, I mean to say. And we get that usually in Hawaii. Why is the soil there simulant to that?

The iron-bearing red volcanic sand is apparently a lot like Mars. You can try this stuff and it seems to work. But to really pull it off and really plan to go to Mars and only get back if you can scrape up Martian soil and make it into rocket fuel, I mean, that's a whole nother. Yeah, you might be planning a one-way trip. You might, yeah. Inadvertently. Yes,. Yeah, you might be planning a one-way trip. You might, yeah. Inadvertently. Yes, and you don't want the inadvertent one-way trip. You don't want to die on impact, and you don't want to be stranded.

These are two really undesirable outcomes on Mars. So, Chuck, we're on Cosmic Queries. Yes, we are. We do our best to answer an inquiry from our beloved listeners. People want to know about making things in space on other planets. That's what we do in engineering, Chuck. Yes, it is. We use science to make things and solve problems. Take it. All right. Query number one. Query number one. Ooh. Michal

Wegsren. Oh, yes. Ah. Michal. I bet you I got that name right, Michal. Michal Wexren. All right. That's as good as I can do. From Facebook. Says, Bill, nanotechnology versus 3D printing. When can we expect 3D printers to be able to print nano elements forments for future nanotech devices.

That's a little meta. It is meta, but it's not that far. Really? Yeah. Many nano-machines are made with the same technology as 3D printing, where you can move the probe tiny, tiny increments, in tiny, tiny increments, and shove molecules around, or atoms around, I mean.

Wow. And so that's actually almost, spiritually, in the big picture, this tiny process does exist. When are you going to be able to do it and make airplanes out of it or aircraft carriers or something? That's a ways off. So now, would there ever be this, you know, in every sci-fi movie, this is what you see, you know, the nanobots.

Yes, nanobots. They all come together, and then they create something. So it's just this never-ending process where there's the machine that creates the nanobots, then the nanobots come together to create or build something. Well, they usually, I think, they usually make a replica of Chuck Nice. Yes. And I and the crew here cannot tell the difference between the real Chuck Nice and the nanobotanical Chuck Nice. One of us has a navel, Bill.

And then things go badly. Things generally go badly because the nanobot Chuck is motivated by something bad. Yes, of course he is. But with that said, the idea of using 3D technology to move a probe or an atom placer machine tiny, tiny increments does exist. That's how, in a sense,

that's how we make some microcircuits. Really? But this is the future where you'd have this machine working really fast on a much larger scale. So stay tuned. And maybe you'll be the mechanical engineer, the electrical engineer you'd have this machine working really fast on a much larger scale. So stay tuned.

And maybe you'll be the mechanical engineer, the electrical engineer that gets on this and makes it all practical and inexpensive. Nice. All right. Fantastic. So it already exists. Look at that. In a sense.

In a sense. In a sense. It's already there. Science future today. Today. That's why you listen to StarTalk. That's exactly right. Maker edition. Br listen to StarTar. That's exactly right. Maker edition.

Brought to you by Google. Here we go. Gabe Dominguez from Facebook wants to know this. Instead of sending a rover to a planet, could we send just a 3D printer plus assembly unit to create multiple rovers? And are there any plans to do something like this? So instead of just one rover, you send kind of a whole manufacturing unit. Then you've got a bunch of rovers that now emanate from this one little manufacturing unit, and they can kind of comb the entire planet for you.

So for those who are just listening to the podcast, I'm sorry you can't see Chuck's arms, gesticulations showing us how this robotic... Nailing about. ...robotic manufacturing on another one. So that gets back to that thing about using the material on, let's say, the Martian surface. Right.

Otherwise, I mean, everybody understands... Wait, let me see if I remember. Wait. Oh, God. In situ, resource, damn it! No, no, it's not damn it. It's utilization. Utilization.

In situ, in situation, resource, utilization. Yes, so the only way you would want to do this, everybody, is if you could manufacture this stuff out of the material that's already there. Here on Earth, we're really good at manufacturing things. Sending all the raw materials to Mars would almost certainly not have an advantage. Thinking out loud, as we are here on StarTalk, perhaps the problems associated with folding up the rovers so they fit in the rocket nose cone, maybe that is a hard problem. And maybe you'd want to send all the piece parts there in more compact fashion and then have the manufacturing gizmo put the wheels on the car kind of thing. Right.

I'm jamming here. Right. I'm jamming. Right. I like it. Because the rovers have to be origamatically folded up. Origamatically? I think it might be origamiically.

Origamiically. Folded up. Right. To get in there. When they get there, they all look like little cranes. Yeah, yeah. That's right. They do. And then they unfold.

No, there could be something to that that's that's a cool question but right now what we want it's just all we can do to get uh government officials to get together to spend one and a half billion over 10 years which is nothing i mean compared to other things we spent money on and so uh now if we were fighting a war on mars oh geez we would have at least 15 trillion to throw at that that's right yes about like what we need are some martian terrorists that's right that's what we really need it's about a factor of 10 10 10.2 exactly you multiply uh the nasa uh the nasa budget by 10.2 you start to get to what the military spends. Wow. Yeah.

That's a little sickening. Well, you know, we live on Earth. And so I said NASA budget. I meant planetary science budget. Yeah. There'll be emails. I've just ended my career. Yes, lead on.

We have another query. Yes, we do. We're making things on the special edition of Star Talk with me, your host, Bill Nye, and citizen of the world, of the wide world, Chuck Nice. Chuck, take it. Here we go. This is from Andy Bracken on Facebook. And Andy says this.

Greetings, Bill, from Columbus, Ohio. How difficult would it be to switch from one material to another, e.g., going from PVC plastic to steel in the middle of a 3D printing process because those are the components needed to make the item. Well, that's being proposed, Andy. Instead of, you may not feed the plastic through the same head or dispenserizer machine as you do the steel, but you'd have multiple heads. This is all solvable.

Like a soda gun at a bar. Yes. Exactly. Not that you would know. No, because you never see those places. No, you've never been to a bar, but you've read stories on the electric internet. The kinds of fabled tales.

Yes, or maybe the occasional movie. So that would be the idea. That's not that hard. In the same way, there are 3D printers that use different colored plastic all at once. So you have different heads that feed the plastic. So those heads would rotate or change? Yes, what I presume. It's not a robot maker guy person, but with an interest. It seems like a very reasonable thing to do. But let me emphasize, there has to be a good reason to do it. You know, these things operate at different temperatures. Right.

And so you don't want to melt the first thing with the second thing. Second thing, right. So now how far are we in terms of our, I'll say, molecular manipulation of plastic to get to the place where you can just make plastic that mimics different types of metals? That's our dream, man. That's what we do all day. I'm sure you're referring to polysulfone. Yes, of course. Yes. Well, I mean, what else would I have been referring to? No, some plastics are nearly as strong as steel nowadays. Right. So especially the ones that you can get glass in, glass fibers. The other thing we all want to do is orient the fibers.

Right. Follow me? Yeah, I got you. What you're saying there. So, you know, plywood has grain that's oriented in 90-degree angles almost always for strength. And so ingots that come out of a steel mill or an aluminum mill have a strength that's different in this direction versus that direction. There's a way they're extruded or drawn out. And then the same is absolutely true of plastic. So you want to be able to exploit that. That's so funny that you just said that. I used to work in a position where I had to do some stuff with fabrics. That is the funniest thing I've ever heard.

What sort of fabric? Were you doing it on the Bible? On the bias? On the Bible. On the bias? Cutting on the bias. You were cutting on the bias. Who gets you with your fashion terminology? Knowing your fashion terminology. Bias on the bias. Cutting on the bias. You were cutting on the bias.

With your fashion terminology. Knowing your fashion terminology. You were just in my mind's head. We were just at the soda gun at the bar. And then all of a sudden we're transported. No, no. Well, you may have noticed that there's often fibers in those clear hoses. Yes, there is.

Those fibers are oriented to maximize the strength. And speaking of maximizing the strength, we're maximizing the fun here on StarTalk Radio. We'll be back right after this. Chuck, you know, this is a very exciting time here at StarTalk Radio because this is a maker edition. Yes, it is. It's right brought to you by Google.

That's correct. Don't forget, making science with google.com. That's where you can get involved in the whole maker vibe. We got another query. Yes, we do have another query. Let's read this one from Tom Ricks. Tom Ricks. Tom Ricks from Facebook would like to know this.

He says, Bill Nye the Science Guy. Yes. How long do you think it will be before we can print a 3D agricultural crop in order to reduce CO2 emissions and water consumption? We have all the ingredients, right? So he's talking about forget going to space and printing something. Can we print something here and now, namely food? Yeah, I thought he wanted to print a crop. He does. He wants to It's pretty aggressive. He wants to, our agricultural crops in order

to reduce CO2 emissions and water consumption, which is very important. So Tom, I think I follow you, but if I understand this, you want to eat a 3D printed plant. Yes. So you, I mean, at our current state of the art, you want to eat a 3D printed plant. Yes.

So, I mean, at our current state of the art, you're going to be eating plastic. Oh, that doesn't work. Why would you put the crop out in the sun if it's 3D printed and stuff like that? So, we may have, once again, if I can use the verb, conflated a couple ideas. Very reasonable that you'll be able to 3D print beads that hold water in the soil so that there's less evaporation. That's very reasonable to me. Or maybe even a mat for planting your crops akin to mulch, plastic mulch.

Do you know what I mean? Or you have to mulch. Traps the moisture. Yeah, yeah. And keeps weeds from coming through. The moisture doesn't evaporate back into the atmosphere. It's fast, right, but you don't want to have it too sealed up. Then you get fungi of various brands.

I think I know what you're driving at. I'm talking about the inside of my sneakers. That's a lot of information, Chuck. I think I know what you're driving at. We would have custom-made mulch mats to plant our crops in, and they could be 3D printed, the mulch mats. So there is an application.

You know, his idea may have been slightly askew, but there is an application for 3D printing in agricultural. Oh, man, heavens, yes. Just like, suppose you, one of the things you got to learn, I think, as a farmer is welding. This is to say when stuff breaks, those people are continually repairing things,

discs and harrows and things. You know what? Now, see, what you just said there just struck in me a little chord because it seems like every movie or television show that you watch where the people are out on a farm and they're like, have all these acres around them anything that breaks they immediately start to go in and fix it the tractor breaks they fix you never see them call somebody tractor co yeah they fix everything farm farm guy skills i guess farm gal skills and so it's very reasonable that you would have 3D printers for farm equipment. And so what I'm imagining in the not too your apartment, and instead of ordering the spare

part and having it shipped to you, you go down to the spiritual equivalent of FedEx Kinkos or Staples, and at that place, they make you a new part. They're a big 3D printer, which they have air-cooled and is large and very accurate. You don't have to have one at home. And then in the same way, certain gearheads keep a collection of wrenches around. Right. There'll be certain gearhead type people that have a 3D printer at home. I know guys with milling machines and lathes at home.

So there'll be that sort of culture. I can understand it, but I wouldn't be surprised if there are big ones someday in the not too distant future for repairing farm equipment. Sure. Okay. Bring it on. Bring it on.

Bring it on. But you don't want to eat what's printed. That's what threw me off a little. Probably not. The application is mostly for assisting in. But I can imagine 3D printing some candy, right? Yes, because you can melt the sugar the same way like glass and you print out some wrong Some 3D printedprinted seaweed.

I mean, it seems very- Sea plant. Seems very reasonable. But why you would do that rather than growing plants directly, okay, I have to think it through. But that's a cool question, Tom. So, Tom, cool question, and the answer is candy. You'll be able to print candy. Mm-hmm.

Candy. There's a 3D printer handy. And it's going to be dandy. Okay. Citizen of the Wide World Chuck, what's our next query? Here we go. Now, this might be another conflation.

However, I know where he is coming from and this is Jason Harvey coming to us from Twitter. And Jason would like to know this. Can we 3D print an animal? And then he goes a little crazy. And then start it up with an electric shock. It's alive!

It's alive! The pitchforks, the citizens, the towns, the villagers. Pitchforks. Why are they out there with pitchforks! The citizens! The towns! The villagers! Pitchforks! Why are they out there with pitchforks and torches? They just don't trust the Doc. Doc Frankenstein. So everybody... I just wanted to pet the rabbit.

It's very reasonable to me that people will be able to 3D print someday DNA. You'd make a synthetic organism. Holy crap. Whether you'd build a whole woolly mammoth from scratch from a 3D printer, that might be harder. But that's a little mind-blowing what you're saying right there. I'm just saying it because people are talking about it. And you don't mean like a model of the 3D. I'm making a virus from a molecular machine printer, Gizmo.

Holy crap. And then making a single cell. Right. And then fusing it and having it grow into a mammoth or a chuck believe me you want the mammoth before you want the chuck no i believe you you didn't lose me i don't think i'm alone this is another one of these things where i would like to talk it over with chuck's wife. I bring it up every show. Oh, believe me. She would prefer a mammoth.

She would prefer a mammoth over another Chuck. That's for sure. And probably much easier to care for. Yes. Yes. Lower maintenance. Lower maintenance. More logical.

And probably sheds less than I do. I can't hear you. A lot of information. A little too much, Chuck. Okay. All right. Here we go. Cool question, Jason.

That is a very cool question. And I have to tell you that I am just slightly disturbed by the 3D printing of DNA. It's very... In a single cell organism that still has the ability to proliferate. Well, that's... Look at us. We start from a single cell. Yeah, you're right.

And don't tell me you haven't held a single cell, an egg. A chicken egg is a single cell. You know I never thought of it that way, but you're right. It's a cool thing of which to think. Yes. I don't think we're as delicious in our nascent stages. I can't hear you. All good.

I can't hear you. Try another one. Just a couple minutes left in this segment. Let's move on. Okay, here we go. This is from Ian Landy from at TechnoLandy on Twitter. Any thoughts

on if any age is too young to try makerspaces and 3D printing? I had my kids do an hour of code is too young to try makerspaces and 3D printing. I had my kids do an hour of code. I'm not sure. An hour of code. An hour of code. A code hour.

Okay, I don't know what that is. That's fine. If a kid is into it, I don't think you can have any trouble. Just how much plastic do you want to waste? Or how embarrassed are you willing to be when the kid makes this fabulous thing that you never thought of so if the if your children if your kids are able to run a 3d printer and write code for an hour i mean more power to them now in general i'm sure ian's kids are exceptional yes because all of our StarTalk listeners are way above average.

They're pretty up there. Yes. I have to say. Yes. The average StarTalk listener is far above average. How do you know that? I was trying to make a joke. No, I'm serious.

I was really going for it. I'm serious. I listen to, I talk to them on Twitter all the time. A lot of them have words like doctor before their name. Stuff like that. All right. Well, who knows what controversy I've gotten myself into of them have like words like doctor before their name stuff like that you know all right well who knows what controversy i've gotten myself into with these offhanded dna musings all i can

tell you is this we live in a country where uh children are allowed to play with guns legally so like they're passing legislation to say that it's okay for children to shoot guns at ranges so i don't see where 3D print, hey, better yet, why don't you get your kids to 3D print a working firearm? No, that's been done, Chuck. Oh, yeah, yeah, that's been done. Oh, yeah, that program exists online. Oh, stop it.

Yeah, you can download it. Oh, come on. But you need a printer that works accurately enough. Oh, you're killing me. I hope not. But, yeah. You're killing me with your 3D gun. Yeah, so the- Are you for real?

There are no laws? Wait a minute, Bill. I'm really upset here. There are no laws to stop you from printing a firearm with a 3D printer? As far as I know, not. Maybe they're proposed, but even if there were laws, Chuck, this is the electric internet. All the kids are using it. So it could be transmitted around.

The thing is, you need the material and you still need bullets and all that stuff. Oh, my God. Deep breaths. Okay, so here is Derek Maddox. Derek. And Derek comes to us from Twitter. Derek says this. Do you think we'll ever be able to 3D print organs efficiently enough to end the need for donors?

Now, I have actually read... You can read. You know what? Believe it or not, it's really okay. Somebody read it to me. By the way, everybody, for you, if you're out there, Chuck is quite the science geek. He reads quite a bit of this stuff. Yeah, let's get at it.

But you're about to revel-a-fate us, give us a revelation of that. No, I read this great article. I believe it was in Scientific Americans, and it was talking about the actual printing of organs. Yeah. And the way they did it was somehow they infused the DNA from the person that they're going to implant the organs so that you don't have a rejection. That's right. Like you would with an app.

Same DNA. So go ahead. That's the plan.'t have a rejection. That's right. Like you would with the- Same DNA. Is that so? That's the plan. That's my understanding. That's the deal. And then you would grow them from the right number of, in the case, the classic is a liver, which apparently is, if you're going to do this,

it's a good place to start. Liver. Yeah. Is that because the liver self-generates anyway? I guess. Self-regenerates. And also the way it is, the way its blood vessels run. It's not innerved.

It's like that. The way the blood vessels would somehow self-organize. I'm not an expert on this, and that's when we're going to get all this mail because I spoke offhandedly. No, but I've heard that that's the one, a good place to start. Is with the liver. Yeah. So the answer, Derek, is yes, and yes, we will be 3D printing organs, and one day efficiently enough where we won't need donors. Yeah, well, the big thing you won't need is not only that, you won't need anti-rejection

drugs, which you alluded to earlier, which would be huge, huge. So now, does that, wow. Does that mean we're living just at the wrong time? That's what I was about to ask. You missed it by that much? Does that mean that I'm getting screwed by the fact that I'm here? But you got three kids. Yeah.

So your genes are going into the future. My genes are going into the future. I'm not worried about my genes. I'm more worried about me. And speaking of liver, hey. You're just saying. I'm just saying. You work in nightclubs.

You're just saying. Flows for free for you. There you're just saying. I'm just saying. You work in nightclubs. You're just saying. Flows for free for you. There you go, man. No, I don't want to change the subject too far, but I've known people that have got in trouble with alcohol because they were comics that got free drinks. Well, you know, you have to. You have to be cognizant. As a matter of fact, I know we're a little off topic. Just a little.

Just a little off topic. Us? You know, but I have to say that one of the things that I had to stop doing because I work in a club most nights and I drink for free everywhere I go was I had to make it a rule that when I'm working, I don't drink. Because otherwise, drinking became part of my job as opposed to the social activity that it should be. Yes. Yeah. Well, with all that said, let's get back to the special edition. That we're all here for.

The Maker Edition. Brought to you by Google. What's the website? And make sure you check out makingwithgoogle.com. So we're making. Making. This is the Maker Edition. That's what it is.

Give me another query. All right. Here we go. A lot of people really are in love with this 3D printing stuff, man. And that's all it's been. This is Jesse from Twitter. Here's the deal. Hey Bill, will doctors be able to 3D print medical tools and specific parts like replacement joints for the body. And I guess she's thinking like in the time when we colonize some place.

I got to say categorically, yes. Absolutely, yes. I saw a presentation by a NASA engineer about this, and she's got it down. This is what we do. We're going to make your hemostats, little clampy wamps for shutting off blood vessels while you're surgerizing. We're going to make scissors, scalpels, all kinds of clamps and happiness. You could make a scalpel out of plastic. No, you'd make it out of metal.

Like we talked about at another time. Or maybe just put a metal edge on it. Or maybe make it out of some modern plastic that's good enough for a few slices. Right. She's wore it out. Right. Then you melt it down and make another one. Another one.

Do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do. Jesse, great question. And the answer is categorically yes. Fantastic. Let us move on. Pardon me. I'm going to look for something a little different. Here we go. You're thumbing. Here we are. This is Israel Giron. Israel Giron. Israel Giron

from Twitter. Says hello from Marana, Arizona. Never heard of it. Well, Arizona's in the U.S. Oh, okay, good. All right. As an educator, what are the benefits of having people flex their brains and creating something rather than purchasing something? No, there's no benefit at all. I'm kidding, of course.

That's a rhetorical question, city. No, the whole thing we want is hands-on interaction. Yes, make things. Become not just a scientist like, what's his name? Neil, Tyson. No, become an engineer. Make stuff. Use science to solve problems and make things.

Gotcha. Chuck, the guy, you got this rhetorical question, city there. science to solve problems and make things. Gotcha. So there's your answer. Chuck, the guy, you got this rhetorical question city there. Well, you know, I think that is. You're right. That is rhetorical. So I'm going to follow it up. I'm going to follow up with this.

So same person says, so we've seen examples of 3D printing of mechanical parts. What are the prospects of 3D printing of mechanical parts. What are the prospects of 3D printing? Now listen, chemical compounds. So. Well, this is very reasonable to me. Really? Yeah. I mean, are you hip that when you buy polyethylene for commercial applications, you're going to make a conveyor belt with plastic rollers or something or a slide or— No, I'm not. You can imagine. I can imagine that, yeah.

Anyway, you specify the plastic by its molecular weight. Okay. There's this ultra-high molecular weight, very high molecular weight, and they can infer how many carbon atoms are strung together in a chain of carbon atoms, for example. So I can imagine a day where you're planting individual atoms onto molecules, and then if it were the kind of molecule you wanted, and you could get it to grow again like a crystal, you would have all of the molecules you would want to interact with.

I mean, I can imagine this. That's cool. Well, it's cool, but I mean, I haven't really done it. Okay. It's a jam in here. I mean, just the- Bill Nye, the science fiction radio host. But that is science fiction within the realm of reason.

Very reasonable. Very reasonable. Yeah. Okay. That's very cool. Look at that. Two very good questions from Israel. I appreciate them.

Let's move on. Boy, you guys with these names. I tell you these names. Sylvanaire. Sylvanaire wants to know this. Is there any food that a 3D printer would be able to make? I'm picturing the precursor to the Star Trek replicator. So now in Star Trek, Captain Picard will go here.

T, Earl Grey, hot. Boom. Would it just appear? Yes. So I want to caution you, Chuck. That show was not real. Now I don't know what to believe. Damn you, Bill.

So when you manufacture food, there's a whole thing in the business. They talk about the taste, but they also talk about the mouthfeel. Yes. And I would not be surprised. And there's a product now called Soylent, which is based on Soylent. Did you say Soylent? Yeah, based on the— Soylent?

Yeah. Okay. Isn't that the product? I don't know. Yeah, it's the food of the future. It's a billboard. I don't think I eat Soylent. Yeah, well's the food of the future. It's a billboard. I don't think I eat soy. Yeah, well, so I could imagine people, well, you eat candy bars.

I do, every once in a while. Yeah, you've seen them. Three times a year, I'll eat a candy bar. Yes, maybe you've had some peanut brittle. Yes, I have. Just the brittle part. Just the brittle part. You've had caramel.

Yes, without a doubt. Okay, that's just, can you imagine a machine that would make some fantastically delicious thing that would have a good mouth feel and would not be natural, it wouldn't be recognizable from something in nature? See, no, I cannot imagine that. It would be, you know, Chuck's Food Bar. Yeah, I don't want to. Chuck's Delicious Green Bar.

I don't want anyone eating Chuck's food bar. What if it had a lovely woman's name? What if it was Malia's delicious food bar? Alright, I'm interested. I gotta tell you the truth, I'm interested. It would be the shape, various shapes

are possible. Anyway, so this is quite possible. I can easily imagine printed food. You've been listening to Star possible. I can easily imagine printed food. You've been listening to StarTalk. I'm Bill Nye, your host, and I'm here with citizen of the world, Chuck Nice. We'll be back right after this. Welcome, welcome, welcome to StarTalk Radio Cosmic Queries. This is a special edition, Chuck. Yes. This is the maker edition. It's brought to you by Google. Yeah. And if you're listening, and I believe you are, when you get where you have access to the Internet, check out their website at makingsciencewithgoogle.com.

Nice. No other way to make science as far as I'm concerned. With Google? That's the only way to do it. Okay. I'm sure you're right. There are no competitors. It's all good.

No, this is StarTalk, and we got queries from you. You have inquired. And by long tradition, our worldwide citizen, Chuck Nice, will read your queries. And he and I will comment insightfully. Indeed. One of us will. That'll be you. All right, we'll try.

The other one will just read them. That's you. That's me. Okay, here we go. This one coming to us from Necro7 on Twitter. Necro. A little troubling. Necro7.

A little troubling. Yeah. All right. And it's Necro. What does he or she have to say? It says, how would you compare the effects of accessible 3D printing today to the effects of the printing press in the early Renaissance? I don't think it'll be quite as influential.

The printing press was a big thing. Yeah. However, 3D printing is absolutely the future. And I talk about this all the time. I'm imagining where we're making, like, you know, maybe I am wrong, as is so often the case. We use the term in mechanical engineering, additive manufacture.

Additive manufacture. That's what 3D printing is. That's 3D what? But, you know, when you think of, you know this word machining? Yes. Where you cut material. Yeah, you make a screw, you cut the metal away or what have you. So this could revolutionize all that we know and love.

So you could possibly at one point envision a world where you just 3D print everything? Everything would be custom made. There wouldn't be anything adjustable. Everything would be made perfectly. Now, when I think about the economic repercussions of such a thing. Belts wouldn't even have more than one hole. The belt would be made and there'd be a single hole for your waist. Well, that's it.

You've sold me. No, but I mean, I can imagine it easily. Right. So you go to the store, and there's designers there. I'm thinking about fashion now, fashion. You go to the store, and they custom make it for you, and they almost sort of do that with Neil's suits. Yeah. He gets them multi-measured at multimeasure.com, and then they fit him better.

He gets them multi-measured at multimeasure.com, and then they fit him better. And so I could easily imagine that the future, everything is customly 3D printed. Yes, you were saying you started to go wide world on us worldwide. I'm thinking, like, what do you do with all the jobs of people who were making the screw that now— Somebody's got to make the printers. So all those people are now just making printers. Well, or they're doing other wonderful, productive, artistic, wonderful, life-enhancing things. Thinking deep thoughts about how to make better printers,

how to design new things. Everybody becomes a designer. Everybody's a designer. Everybody custom makes everything. Come on. It's a scary world. Cheer it up, Chuck. I'm going to say that, yeah, because where I see this going is—

Let me just ask you about that sentence. I'm going to say, yeah. Can you expand on that just ever so? I'm going to expand on that right here just a little bit. 3D printers making 3D printers, and now we're done. Now nobody works anymore. Well, but who's shoveling the coal? That is to say, who's making the electricity? Somebody's going to have to do something. Somebody's got to do something. Somewhere. All right.

Notice that people are as busy as ever. You say, what did they do in the good old days? They churned milk. They grew crops. They tilled the soil. They got rid of the weeds, what have you. They grew crops. They tilled the soil. They got rid of the weeds, what have you. People, it has not led to a life of leisure. Right. You wash the dishes automatically while you're doing a bunch of other stuff now.

Right. Okay. Humans are busy, busy humans. Okay. All right. I'm going to go with you. Bees. Only humans.

All right. Let's get to another question. This one from Twitter says, how— Does it have a name, Twitter? No, just Twitter. Twitter's on Twitter. Twitter is on Twitter. Somebody secured that name early on. Yes, so, hello, Twitter.

I would love to get that name. That'd be my Twitter handle. No, you wouldn't. It wouldn't say Chuck. It would say at Twitter, though, and everybody would know that that's me. You'd a man. Everybody would have, at Twitter, everybody would have that. You figure you'd have a lot of followers, and that would lead to a pay raise.

Right. Because that's what you got to do nowadays to get a pay raise. That's what I'm saying to you. So Twitter has a question. Twitter wants to know this. How does 3D printed materials, carbon footprint, or other environmental strain metric compare to that of manufactured products. So is it on equal footing? Is it less of a carbon footprint?

Seems to me it's less footprint. If you could efficiently ship the material to where you need it and then manufacture in situ, then you wouldn't have all the bulky. Like, for example, I'm looking here in the studio at stools or a sofa. Sofa. The packing for those things is large. True. If they could be manufactured closer to where they're being used.

No need for it. You'd have probably more efficient shipping of the raw materials. Right. You know what I mean? You wouldn't have that volume. Just in these couple examples looking around the room here. So now, do you think that it might lead to a more disposable world? Or a more recyclable world? Ooh.

The couch is made of magic plastic that you just melt down and make into a new stool or ottoman or settee or headboard or even dresser drawer. Just doing a furniture thing. So you were saying. Or maybe a mattress. So the idea is you would have to make materials that can be used again and again.

I mean, it's certainly reasonable. I mean, the 3D printed plastic that we're using now is meltdownable. Right. If I can coin that adjective. I love when you get all science-y on me like that. It's just, it's nibonic. Meltdownable. Okay, let's move on.

Moving on. Kevin. Cosmic Queries Maker Edition. Kevin S. from Twitter. Kevin. Kevin S. wants to know this. What's the strength of 3D printed metal parts, cast, forged, or billet of the same material? So if you got it strewn out of this little head, can it be as strong as something that's die-cast or something

that's forged? I'm not an expert on that, but I will say this. I saw a wrench made, and it was a little oversized, I think, for stiffness. Okay. And sintered parts, these are parts made from powder that is fused together, melted, essentially. Those aren't as strong, but they have other properties. In the example of sintering, they hold oil for a bearing or whatever. That has an advantage. Okay.

So I could easily imagine a secondary operation where you roll or press or smash the 3D printed part or additively manufactured part to give it strength. I could easily imagine that. And I guess as a host of StarTalk Radio, I should know more about that, and I will make a note to learn that. All right. Well, there you have it. But as a mechanical engineer,

I can imagine the secondary operation of smashing to work harden it, to give it strength. Gotcha. You know how you can't straighten out a paperclip very easily? Right. Because after you bend it, it's called work hardening. You've done work on it

and it gets stiff. It's the nature of the grains of metal. Gotcha. So very reasonable that you'd have to re-smash. But that could be a lot cheaper

than shipping a full-sized wrench to somebody. All right. Trying to get that nut up under the sink. Maybe you'd just make the perfect custom-made wrench just right there.

Just right for that. And then you'd melt it back down after you're done. There you go. And have all those molecules floating around your house. I like it. All right, this is Tim from Twitter. Tim from Twitter. And he's tweeting to us from at Evil Nut.

Can't hear you. Can't read you. All right, at Evil Nut. At't hear you. Can't read you. All right. At evil nut. At evil nut wants to know this. Are they testing or printing in zero G? It seems like it would be impossible in zero G.

They do it. Metal. They did it on the space station. Cause it's liquid. So he did it on the space station and the word liquid, you know, it's, it's a,

it's gooey. It's amorphous. It's literally, both as the adjective and as the noun, plastic. You know, the Earth's crust, I mean, the Earth's mantle. Right. It's said to be plastic. Really? Smush aroundable.

Because it's hot. Hot. Very hot. So, and yes, they've 3D printed in space. By paying attention to what they're doing, the thing squirts out and the plastic sticks to the plastic. Okay. So you can shape parts in space even though you don't have gravity. There you go. In fact, there's probably an argument from 3D Print Co. that says gravity is a real problem.

You should do all your manufacturing in space. Oh, really? I can easily imagine somebody coming in here to say that, and I would not be in a position to disagree, Chuck. There you have it. I'd have to do the opposite of that. I'd have to agree. So although it's counterintuitive, actually, zero G is great.

Just imagine squirting toothpaste on the wall. Now squirt another bead of toothpaste on the toothpaste. It would stick to it, right? Right. Even though you're upside walled. Upside down or no matter where you are. That's right. I mean, you can imagine that it's possible.

Squeeze it right out of the tube and right onto the toothbrush. Okay. This is a great question. How does it go? Thomas, Thomas, T-J-L-K from Twitter wants to know this. Will people be able to 3D print medicine? So you're talking about manufacturing medicine. Sure.

Really? Imagine this. I mean, how hard can this be? This is awesome. They tell you to take two aspirin. They tell you to take one aspirin. Right. You just custom print the size of the pill you want.

So you have now- It's your aspirin goo stuff. So how do you dial up the... The physician weighs you. Okay. And then prescribes the right size pill. Just for shooting from the hip without even starting. Okay. Without even trying to make molecules from scratch. All right, good. Not even doing that. Not even doing that. Just right from the get-go. Wow. And then furthermore, at home, your bathroom scale is on the internet. It tells pill.com squirt machine how to squirt out the right size pill for how much you weigh, and then you're just perfectly healthy. And imagine it. I mean, it's one thing with aspirin,

but imagine there's so many people with all these other exotic disorders, and they have to constantly manage their dose. I can easily imagine a machine or a couple of machines that could do that. So no more one-size-fits-all prescriptions. Yes. It's easily imagined. It's constantly prescribed for you. Yes. That's fantastic.

From PrescribeCo.com. They're at your Rite Aid, your Duane Reade, your CVS. And this is where maybe you don't have the machine at home, but you have a bathroom scale at home. And it transmits your weight to your druggist who then when you show up with the prescription, the pills are just the right size. Wow. Whoa. How cool would that be? You've been listening to StarTalk Radio.

I'm your host, Bill Nye, with my co-host, Chuck Nice. Keep looking up. This is StarTalk.