StarTalk Radio - Maker Mix, with Bill Nye (Part 2) – StarTalk All-Stars

Episode Date: December 27, 2016

What is the maker movement? Find out when Bill Nye and Chuck Nice answer more Cosmic Queries about makers, including Maker Faire, kids and STEM, robots vs. bots, greenhouses and hydroponics, large scale 3d printing, renewable energy and recycling, 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. Greetings, greetings, greetings. Bill Nye here, your host of StarTalk Cosmic Queries Edition. And I'm here with worldwide citizen Chuck Nice. And Chuck, this is no ordinary StarTalk Cosmic Queries Edition. Oh no. It is not. It's special. It's a special edition sponsored by Google, and we want you to check out the website, makingsciencewithgoogle.com. It's all about making things. Yes.

It's all about engineering. For me, it's all about engineering, Chuck, where we use science to solve problems. Yes. And make things. Absolutely. Solve problems and make things. Oh, and my excitement. Solve problems and make things. Oh, and my excitement. Solve problems and make things. You have a query.

Yes, I do. A question from a listener, a viewer, a person. This is funny because this is from at Mrs. Doodle Journey on Instagram. At Mrs. Doodle Journey. At Mrs. Doodle Journey. Okay. Okay. What is the best way to make a portable greenhouse?

So I suppose she's looking at this. If I were, no, no, no, no. This weekend. Really? Yes. With clear plastic inflatable dome. That's what I do. That's it.

That's all you really need. That's what I do. People play tennis under inflatable domes. People make inflatable domes for their backyard for fun, held up by a fan. So I could easily imagine a clear plastic dome. You carry it in essentially a backpack or a shopping cart or a hand truck. And you show up at wherever you want inflatable dome zone and turn the bad boy on. wherever you want inflatable dome zone, and turn the bad boy on.

And the fan to hold the thing inflated will run off a solar panel connected to a battery that would keep the thing inflated all night. I did that without even just from the hip. I'm going to tell you, that was impressive. And then in space, it seems like it would be just the same thing with a lower pressure inflatable dome. And plants do seem to grow okay in space. You know, that's a little game they play up there. Right.

So as long as you have the right soil. Or the right hydroponic medium. Right. Can I say medium? I like that. Here on the radio, medium. I like hydroponic even better. Yes.

And then you can grow stuff, I guess, portably. Awesome. But still, so far, you still need a source of light and water and hydroponic nutrients. That's why they have lamps and closets. I'm sorry. I can't hear you. I don't know what you're talking about. You know, changing the subject to what used to be illegal agriculture at home.

Yeah. Looks like that's all going to be legal soon enough. Well, it should be. Let's be honest. Can I ask as a fellow citizen? Yes. I don't want to breathe the secondhand smoke from the legalized and properly taxed marijuana sales.

You do not want to breathe the secondhand smoke. I do not want to breathe the secondhand smoke. Well, that's why they'll have coffee houses where you can go and designate areas for people who enjoy that. Grown in an inflatable greenhouse. Exactly. Maybe in an inclement place. Say you're in Norway or something in the wintertime and you just got to have your inflatable greenhouse for whatever.

You could do that. Your coffee house. Enjoyment. Enjoyment, right. Just don't make me breathe this. I just never like to smell. If I may whine. I just never like the smell. If I may whine. I just never like the smell.

And you worked in nightclubs for 100 years. Yes. Everything smelled like smoke. Everything. Well, that was one of the great things about moving here to New York City was shortly after I moved here. When was this? 1999, exactly. When was this?

1999, exactly. But shortly thereafter, the mayor said, no more smoking anywhere. We're going to get rid of smoking. Interior spaces. Interior spaces. And everyone lost their mind. Thought the place was going to go out of business. It was going to go out of business. And especially the restaurants.

The restaurants and, more importantly, the comedy clubs. Because they're like, what are you talking about? That's all we do here. That's all we do here is smoke and drink. That's all that happens here. And so occasional laugh is told. Right. And we don't even care about that as long as people are smoking and drinking.

And sure enough. What happened is. More people came. And they spent more money. Yeah. Yeah, that's cool. More people came. So I'm just asking.

money. Yeah. Yeah. That's cool. More people came. So I'm just asking after we have the inflatable greenhouse, uh, and you're growing marijuana commercially and taxing it legally and enriching, uh, the government coffers through, uh, proper commerce. I don't want to have to breathe a second hand smoke. That's all you have it. All right. So let's move on to Jennifer. You know, Jennifer, it's a long last name. on to Jennifer. You know, Jennifer. It's a long last name. Oh, my. Jennifer. Melkade.

Melkade. Melkade. Okay. M-E-L-C-H-I-A-D-E. Melkade. Melkade. Melkade. Melkade.

Anyway, Jennifer. Exactly. Coming to us from Instagram. Now, this is somewhat of an existential question. Like, dude. So you're going to have to kind of really just branch yourself for a minute. Hey, Bill, what's next after 3D printing? Jennifer, I don't know. I don't know.

But I think additive manufacture of all sorts is in the future for sure. You can design shapes you can make additively or 3D printing that you can't make through conventional machining. So what's after that? I guess molecular scale 3D printing or atomic scale. Look at you. You had it in you. Yes, atomic scale 3D printing. guess molecular scale 3D printing or atomic scale. Look at you. You had it in you. Yes, atomic scale 3D printing. Atomic scale 3D printing.

Individual atoms placed on, let's say, substrates of exotic new future circuits. Wow. Extremely compact. Hustling against Moore's Law, where every 10 years we double the amount of memory in a given volume. Yes. That's the future, Jennifer. I've answered it succinctly. And you can take that to the bank, Jennifer.

No. It seems reasonable. It does seem reasonable. It seems reasonable. All right. So now, okay. So this is, oh, these people, I think they're doing this on purpose, Bill. 3D printing festival?

No. These names. That's not her name. But go ahead, try it. He or she will be very sympathetic. Yoimakum. That's impossible. This is impossible.

Listen, I'm going to spell this. Y-O-I-M-A-C-Q-U-B-A-N-B. Come on. Come on. Really? You're not Q-B-U-N. Really? You're not Q-B-U-N.

You're not Q-B-U-N. You're not Q-B-U-N. Could be Y-O-I-N-O-Q-U-A-R-B-U-N. Y-O-I-N-O-Q-U-A-R-B-U-N. But probably there's some language where that's a guy's name. I'm sure there is. And I don't mean to disparage your name. Chuck.

Nice. Exactly. Barely two syllables. I don't mean to disparage. You don't even finish this. Chuck Nice. All right. So go ahead.

All right. So this person, I'm going to call you Yo. Okay. Yo, that's pretty cool. Yo. All right. Hey, Bill. I think you mean yo. Or yo. Yo. Yo. You can stop right there. Yeah. Yo, Bill. Yo, that's pretty cool. Yo, all right. Hey, Bill. I think you mean yo.

Or yo. Yo. You can stop right there. Yo, Bill. Yo. And he says, hey, Bill, what are the limits of 3D printing? Don't cop out and say the human mind, Mr. Science Guy. Do we know yet what we cannot do or could never do with 3D printing?

Well, I think of something big. What's a big thing? Empire State Building. Empire State. I don't see why you couldn't 3D printing. Well, I think of something big. What's a big thing? Empire State Building. Empire State. I don't see why you couldn't 3D print it. No, and imagine the printer. How big does it hang? Oh, no, no, no.

The printer could go around. Well, not just that. The printer could go around the foundation in a big spiral. And it's going up to the sky indefinitely as somebody as long as somebody fed it spiral 3d printing fluid you know what now that you say that there are these window cleaning uh autobots that they use i forget the building in a clean windows yes but robotically robotically and uh that's how they work they They just go around the building all day long. In a spiral, yeah.

Why not? In a spiral. What's not to love? So, I mean, you can, in other words, think of it where the printer doesn't have to be bigger than the object being printed. Let's go with that insight. Right. Follow me?

Right. I got you. Got you. Like a spider web is bigger than a spider. Exactly. Like the Empire State Building is bigger than a human. Exactly. By some fraction.

Oh, my God. Humans showed up there and built the freaking thing. See, so, hey, yo, here's the problem. You think too small. No, I'm joking. No, no. He or she is a listener and viewer. We love you.

No, we do love you. You're not. That's a really good point, though. A spider web is much bigger than a spider. Yes. And it's because you're building out. And so this would be building around. A spider provides the protein, the raw material, and then also the design and construction.

It's very cool. Look at that. Think big. Think big. It doesn't have to be a spiral. That was Uncle Bill just kind of jamming. Mm-hmm. All right.

Here we go. Swanson Dinner. Swanson Dinner wants to know this. Our good friend. Our good friend Swanson Dinner wants to know this. Our good friend. Our good friend Swanson Dinner. Swanny says, 3D printing seems like a great way to pave the road for human colonizations. Pave the road. Get it?

Solar system. That's it. That's what we want to do is have 3D printers on board spacecraft that would make everything an astronaut needs when he or she needs it rather than packing all this stuff. And I'm sure, I think you'll want a substantial number of rolls of duct tape, but also you'd have a machine that would print all the tools you might need. Should anything go wrong, you make the tool to fix that thing. Otherwise, you don't take the tool. Instead, you take computer programs, computer files, full of the files to make the tools.

And whatever powder or liquid or goo. Goo, yeah. I presume you have cold weather goo, vacuum goo, inside the spaceship goo, food grade goo, non-food grade goo all on board the spaceship. Nice. All right. grade goo all on board the spaceship. Nice. All right.

Well, there you have it. Steve Martin used to have a bit about, I suppose, not only were the hamburgers and the package recyclables, but they're made of the same thing. Then here's your change. Let's take a query. This is a very broad question coming from at TeddyTBD on Instagram. Teddy to be determined. That's Instagram. Teddy to be determined. That's right. Teddy to be determined.

Wants to know this. Could you please tell us what the maker movement is? Well, I'd ask them. Is there a maker movement? Well, it sure seems like, especially in the Bay Area and San Francisco and California, it seems like there's a lot of people who celebrate this. And to me, it's like kinetic sculpture. It's sculpture that moves.

That's what I feel a lot of the maker movement is. But phrases include more than they leave out. Some makers like to improve sewer systems. Some makers like to make better airplanes. Some makers like to make cool, looks like a Tyrannosaurus art. Right. But they've made it. That's what's cool. Encourage young people to make things. Gotcha. And as these kids today, they're electric computer games. They're not making anything. Well, we want them to make

stuff. That's what, believe it or not, when you say that's all my son wants to do is make computer games. He's convinced that he's going to be, which I never discourage him. How old is this guy? He's nine and he just started coding. Oh, so this is it. He may end up to be computer man of the future. Maybe. And then he can support you in your old age.

I hope so. But I keep telling him that there are much greater pursuits than making the next first person shooter game. than making the next first-person shooter game. Like, once you know how to speak that language and write that language, whatever is in your mind, no matter how, like... Listen, Dad, you're inspirational. Yeah.

Bring it on, Dad. Why limit yourself to a first-person shooter game when you might write code that could figure out how we can solve global warming. Yes. I mean, somebody's going to write an algorithm that will take us to that place. You know, I mean, we already know that what we also, I mean, I'm talking to the man who

is single-handedly taking up this fight in the media. But, you know, there's other things that we have to do. But there are going to be some answers that we're going to need because I think we're a little late to the party when it comes to global warming. That's all you're saying. Climate change. Having your son resolve global climate change is a great idea, but he is nine. There'll be some other things he's got to do, like third grade. I'm not saying he won't solve global warming.

I don't mean to be that. Let him get through the third grade for us. Dad, take it easy on the guy. Let him be a kid. All right. You might have a point. Maybe. All right, go ahead. Let's, um,

I just realized how ridiculous I sounded. You were on it, man. You were on it. You were having your kid save the whole world. Save the world, son. Just like you did when you became a stand-up comic. Exactly. Dude, role model, dad. Oh, geez.

Pull it back. That's why someday, everybody, I want to meet the wife. I want to meet Chuck Nice's wife. Oh, God. This woman. She's a saint, man. I want to say it goes through hell, but it's got to be close. That was, dude, I'm crying.

That was hilarious. I never even thought of that. I'm telling my son to save the world, and I tell dick jokes for a living. Okay, here we go. I can't hear you. Here we go. At Mountain Mint wants to know this. Where is the line, when you talk about making, where is the line between a computer and a robot?

When does a computer stop being a computer and become a robot? Well, I think words include more than they leave out. And words never say all there is to say about anything. The words are not interchangeable. For me, a robot has something that moves, mechanically moves. Right. For me. And it might be driven by a computer program, but we use the term bot, which is a piece

of software that does something. Software that does a task. So there's no question the two words or the two ideas are merging. So I wouldn't worry about the difference so much. If English isn't your first language, the person who asked this question, then just if it's got something that moves mechanically, physically in physical space-time, then call it a robot. If it is only software, then call it a computer program.

There you go. So they go. But if you're a native speaker of American English, you just got to roll with it. You got to listen and use the words how you feel they're appropriate. Awesome. There you go. There's your answer. Very succinct and clear.

And then, by the way, the person whose English is a second language will pretty soon will be smarter than the better with English than I am. So that's just the start of things. My chops will be busted yet again. Heavens, I will do more hate mail. Yeah, you know, see, I don't have that problem. I just ignore them, you know. I could do that. That's all I get, though.

I don't have any non-hate mail. Oh, that's not true at all. Do you know how many people? Do you have any idea? Do you have any idea how many people that I meet and they actually say, oh, my God, you know Bill Nye. And that's it. Like, they don't, there's nothing else that comes after that. Like, and all I can say is yes, yes, I do.

And, but there, they seem to be amazed that I just get to be in your presence. Now, I don't know if that's a, a referendum on me. I'm not sure. Well,

I'm in my presence all the time and I just want you to know, it's not always pretty. Yeah. No. So I was just at the science teacher convention, you know, we made the science guy show 20 years ago. Right.

And these people are still, they watch it all the time in class. It's unbelievable. It worked really hard. It's very gratifying. I'll take that as a thank you. Thank you, Chuck. I think it was a compliment. There's a ton of people out there.

Let's get another query. Huge, huge Bill Nye fans. Like Luke the Magic Kid. Luke the Magic Kid having Luke the Magic Kid, having a little fun here, says, can I 3D print a Bill Nye clone to do my science homework for me? No. Is that you personally telling him no? Are you denying him, or are you saying that it's not possible?

I don't think that's really what you want, and certainly you can't do it, for example, this weekend in time for your homework. For your math test on Monday. No. That's not going to happen. Because where I think he's going with this, what I'm sensing is that,

Bill, would you come take the test for me? A couple of things about that. First of all, no. But secondly, you might be disappointed when you haven't done, when you haven't derived the fundamental theorem of calculus in 20 years. You may not be as sharp as others. Right.

You haven't done entropy and chemical reactions. Clausius, whatever that is, I may not be the first guy you want for that. Writing an essay, you can see how much trouble I have with English. So this is Bill Nye here with Chuck Nice, worldwide citizen of the wide world. And you're listening to Star Talk. And we'll be back right after this. Welcome back to Star Talk Radio. I'm your host Bill Nye here with wide world citizen of the worldwide world, Chuck Nice. This is Cosmic

Queries. And we've just been jamming here on the special world, Chuck Nice. This is Cosmic Queries, and we've just been jamming here on the special edition, the maker edition, which is brought to you by Google. And we would encourage you strongly to check out their website at makingsciencewithgoogle.com. makingsciencewithgoogle.com.

You will not be disappointed. Of course, you're on the radio right now, or you're podcasting. You have earbuds on. Everybody around you has earbuds on, and you're the the radio right now, or you're podcasting. You have earbuds on. Everybody around you has earbuds on, and you're the only one who's getting enlightened by citizen of the wide world Chuck Nice as he reads us our next cosmic query. Yes, yes, Bill. Here is a cosmic query from someone you should be familiar with, And this is the Planetary Society. Ah, the Planetary Society, ah yes.

Of which I am CEO. You are CEO. I wonder which one of my staff is out to jab me in the brain. Might this be a set-up question? Oh, if it is, I haven't heard it yet. What is it? As Sarah Palin would say, a gotcha question. Okay.

Hi Bill, this is the Planetary Society from Pasadena, California, wondering if 3D printing will be able to one day print glass or lenses. In particular, curious if a deep space telescope like Hubble could be fully printed and assembled in space rather than built here and then launched. And I'd like to follow up with what would be the benefits of that. Oh, it would be so cool. So keep in mind, everybody, when we talk about lenses, this is where you refract light like you do in your eye. But these large telescopes almost always use mirrors and then lenses kind of in the smallest part of them.

The mirrors gather, mirrors are big, gather large amounts of light, concentrate it, and then it might pass through a lens or two before it gets to an electronic sensor. Charge couple device like in your digital camera, like in your phone. But with all that said, very reasonable, you know, there's optical plastic. But with all that said, very reasonable, you know, there's optical plastic. In fact, if you're watching this on the electric internet video feed, I'm wearing plastic contact lenses, which refract light beautifully. Yeah. They have rings, and they have an up and a down. They're bifocular, minor. Look at that.

Yeah, and so very reasonable to me that you could manufacture lenses in space out of optical plastic without really having to change too much, like that technology is probably right at our fingertips, then it seems to me you could certainly manufacture a very large mirror in space. But keep in mind that we manufacture those mirrors and these things to microns, to millionths of a meter. Really? And so to make a machine that manufactures these things a millionths of a meter in space may not be that easy. So that's why we haven't tried it yet, but it sure seems reasonable. Look at that. Sure seems reasonable. Let's take some optical plastic in space and squirt it out of a 3D machine and see if we get a nice lens. Very cool. Well, look at the Planetary Society actually asking a very salient question.

It sounds like- Don't figure that. It sounds like Merrick or Matt, one of those thoughtful thinkers. Cool. Emily would just assume that, of course, it's possible. All right, let's move on. This is from Cassie Rosemary, who comes to us for Instagram. Hi, Bill. Are there environmentally sustainable printing material? Okay, let me just. No. Yes, of course there are. There's recyclable plastic.

Merry name person. Did you get her name out? Did you ever manage that? It says Kassi Rosemary. Rosemary, I heard the last couple syllables. Yes, Cassie. It's very reasonable that you'd have plastic that is recyclable. Now, I have, from time to time, gotten hold of a corn plastic coffee mug.

Corn plastic? Made from corn. And it's cool. It's cellulose made from corn. And they don't last forever. They, too, literally leak after a while. But they last a long time and they are meltdownable

and they are made from organic material. So it's very reasonable to me as engineers and chemists and chemical engineers keep messing with this, in the very near future we could have completely recyclable plastic. Very reasonable to me.

Wheat. Sweet. Off at sweet corn, yeah. Look at that. Stopat. Sweet. Off at Sweet Corn, yeah. Look at that. Stop it. See that? There's where the ties are so simply made. Now, here's the follow-up.

Is the makers' movement focused on going about their manufacturing revolution in a matter that takes into account the resources that they are using? Well, so much of the make—when you go to the Maker Faire, so many of the objects there are made from recycled or repurposed materials. So this is something that is top of mind. It is a tradition, yeah, yeah. And plus, if you're a person on a budget, if you're a normal person who doesn't want to just trash money

on a thing for Maker Faire, you find stuff to make things out of. And that's good. Right. What's not to love? Right. Yeah. But the whole promise of the near future is to make anything in any shape from recycled plastic or recyclable materials.

Yeah. Wow. Instead of just taking the computer fan, computer cooling fan, and making it into the flying drone propeller. Right. You'd actually grind up the original fan and make it into the perfectly shaped propeller. Gotcha. And you do it with renewable energy made from wind and solar electricity. So now with that in mind, do you, you know, when the plastics revolution came about. When was that?

Back in the 60s. All right. And started throwing the Pluto platter. Right. Exactly. To the Frisbee. And, you know, we knew that this material, this space age material was going to change the world. No one took into effect the fact that once we have it, we have it.

And it doesn't degrade. It doesn't degrade. We made it, and now it's here. Now it's all in our oceans and everywhere. But when you buy a plastic water bottle now, it says on there it's recyclable. It says recycle this. I walk through the airport or the subway, here's the recycling bin. Right. So now with that in mind, when we're manufacturing with this wonderful technology, do we try

to incorporate a way that we can recycle for the manufacturing on premise where the manufacturing started? Or do we stick to this system well we have now where we're dropping it in a recycling thing what i'm saying that there'll be a future with i'm i know this fall the following word is very troubling it's an obscene word for certain people okay regulations where you would not be allowed to make things out of anything. Everything would have to be made out of environmentally benign material. Okay.

I can easily see that. Okay. You're not allowed to manufacture stuff that leaches bad stuff into the water supply. All right. Monomers and cancer, carcinogenic pieces of molecules. Instead, everything would have to be made responsible. You can easily imagine that. Furthermore, the free market would enable it because manufacturers say, check our things

out. Your dog can chew on this without getting sick. Okay. So now is there a paraphrase? No, here's the thing. Now that's a cat or your baby or your Chuck. Nice. Your wife.

Or your baby. Right. Or your Chuck Nice. In case of your wife. So now with that in mind, I ask you this, because this seems to be very much like the internet, this printing. It seems to be the Wild West. It's kind of like, it's just out there. Anybody can do it.

Anybody can do it. It's cool. It's democratizing manufacturing. Exactly. So now, how do we get those regulations in place? Because just like when the plastics revolution happened and nobody considered that one day we would have a trash circle in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. I don't think anybody's looking forward to what will the carbon imprint of this be. I think people are.

Are they really? Yeah. I mean, it says on the bottle, this is recyclable. Okay. Right? Okay. It says on your vest, this is made from recycled materials. No, mine says made in China.

Well, it might say both. Okay. Right? Right. Everybody freaks out about having things manufactured in Asia. They're designed here and we buy it from somebody else, it's just a global way of thinking about having it designed in Pittsburgh but manufactured in Milwaukee, just on a global scale. Okay, gotcha.

Just everybody. It's not inherently bad that different things are specialty manufactured in different parts of the world. For example, my sister continually busts my chops about my bow ties are not parts of the world. For example, my sister continually busts my chops about my bow ties are not made in the States. You mean the bow ties that you, you have a brand of bow ties. Yeah, yeah. Because we don't have silkworms in the United States. I'm sorry. Oh, wow. Look at you using real silk. Lovely.

But I mean, you guys, maybe one day with the inflatable greenhouse, we'll have silkworms right now. And that's kind of an entrepreneurial idea right there inflatable greenhouse, we'll have silkworms right now. And that's kind of an entrepreneurial idea right there. You know, we have butterfly houses. Let's have silkworm manufacture right here. Silkworm products. Silk products right here in the United States. It could be a big thing.

So what's exciting about this show today, Chuck, is how empowering it is. This 3D printing additive manufacture is going to change the world. This is Star Talk. That's right. I'm Chuck Nice. And this special segment of Cosmic Queries Maker Edition with Bill Nye is brought to you by Google. Be sure to check out their website at makingsciencewithgoogle.com. And now, without further ado, the one, the only, Mr. Bill Nye.

Thank you, Chuck. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you, Chuck. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you, Chuck. Chuck, you have the queries over there. Yes, I do. Leave me one. Let's jump right into this. Speaking of making, this comes from Aiden on Facebook.

Speaking of making. Using science to make things and solve problems. Right. What is the best way to get children, especially girls, into STEM and specifically engineering? I suppose that's why he said speaking of making. Specifically engineering. Algebra. Oh, really? Yeah, so you just want to make sure everybody learns algebra.

Algebra. Apparently algebra enables you to think not only abstractly about numbers, but enables you to think abstractly about all kinds of things. So just make sure that your young ladies learn algebra. Now, there's a period in middle school and upper elementary school where girls are just better at everything. And so they're better at math, too. Just don't let them pull back. Don't let them pull back. Yes. Make sure they stick with it. Now, most people don't get to algebra until, well, I went to a school where we got it to it in eighth grade. Yeah. Seventh grade, eighth grade.

Right. And then they're- So what we want in the big picture is to start having letters represent numbers earlier. So, right. So- Lower pressure. So it doesn't all show up at once in eighth grade. Right. So, you know, and the other thing too thing, too, is one of the things that I see that they're doing in math now is getting children. They as an educators or at least the educators that are educating my children from what they said on the parent teacher night was to get getting children to be able to write about math. Now, is there something, is there a value there? I guess yes. Yes, there is. Of course there's value to writing about math.

Okay. Because you're trying to solve, that's what a word problem is. You're trying to solve problems. Yeah, so everybody who thinks later in life, in general, is thinking in words. Yeah. So everybody who thinks later in life in general is thinking in words. Right. So if you think about your numbers in words, you're doing that much better. Yeah. Right. That's right. Gotcha. Gotcha. So for girls, get them. And then, you know, like I've had a thought, but I can't really express how I feel. I'm really skeptical. Humans have been around for so many thousands and thousands of years.

You know, everybody talks about Greek has these wonderful words, 35 different words for love or whatever that is. That's for love. And that's good. But I bet you if you really have something you really need to express, there's a word for it because we've just got people have been talking for so long. And so you may have to use some adjectives. It may not be a single word, but you'll get there.

You'll get there. That's my feeling. Right. I'm sure there are linguists out there who will bust my chops, but I'm doing my best here. Especially when it comes to love. With these words. Especially.

All right. Let's move on to... It's very easy for you to say, Mr. Nice. Carleo Adams. Carleo. Carleo. Mm-hmm. Or Carley Roy.

Carley Roy. Carley Roy. Carley Roy. Carley Roy Adams wants to know this. Hi, Bill. I'm a big fan. I'm interested to know your predictions for Africa. Specifically, where do you think this pre-post-materialistic initiative will drive progress towards, and will it fill gaps in the production systems faced in many countries that have the raw materials yet lack the skilled manpower and policies for scientific missions ranging from space exploration to medical research.

Wow. You want to talk about a question. I think the answer there is yes. is for everyone in the world to have access to clean water, reliable electricity, and access to the information superhighway, the internet, the World Wide Web. I believe that if everybody in the world is given access to the World Wide Web, then everybody will become exceptionally more productive, especially in remote areas. So one of the things you've got to do, for example, Chuck, by way of example. Okay. In order to use the Internet, computers have to have clocks,

very accurate clocks inside. And so we do that here in the developed world by running wires everywhere, and everybody's got a clock. Even if you're running your phone, the cell towers that communicate with your phone are running on landline wires at this point. But wouldn't it be cool in the developing world if we have just local things in the village with solar panels that run their electrical system, big batteries that store enough electricity to run overnight? And the World Wide Web is coordinated from space, satellites in space. And so why would the developed world do this for the developing world? Why would it we provide those them?

Right. Because then they're going to be better off than we are. Because, well, no, everybody would be more productive. And if you want to buy the raw materials from people, wouldn't it be nice if they were all on the internet and you could do business with them electronically? And so this is in everybody's best interest, clean water, reliable electricity, and access to the internet to everyone in the world. Those are our goals. Rural Africa is as good a place as any to get started on this. Fantastic. So there you- The skills will emerge. People will get good at it. Right. Not this weekend, but in a few years.

Okay, well, now I'm done with that. I want it this weekend. Okay, then. Go to the right guys and gals. Yeah, tell me about it. All right, let's move on to OK Byte. OK Byte. OK Byte.

B-Y-T-E. B-Y-T-E. B-Y-T-E. OK Byte. Hi, Bill. Hi, OK. I'm Bill. Hi, okay. I'm a big fan from Turkey. I wonder whether we will be able to connect every little electronic device in our home,

from our coffee machines to our clothes dryers, to a local network, so that we can control them from anywhere at any time. So... Yes. That's it. Yes. We're already pretty much there, right? That's where we're going, where all the food has a label on it

that tells you when it was put in there and suggests recipes you could make from the food. And we certainly all want a thing where we can take out our phone and program our recorder to record a show. Right. But even that's not all the way happening because now you can get it on demand. Yes. If you forgot to watch it or forgot to record a show. Right. But even that's not all the way happening because now you can get it on demand. Yes.

After if you forgot to watch it or forgot to record it. You're just going down, you stream it. I'm imagining both. The refrigerator, the dryer would tell you when it's done. All right. So you put the clothes in the dryer, then you go downstairs to play ping pong with your neighbors, or you go to the garage to play ping pong with your neighbors.

And the phone goes beep, beep, beep, the dryer's done, then you go back inside. Why not? Right. What's not to love? So now ping pong with your neighbors. Right. And the phone goes beep, beep, beep. The dryer's done. Then you go back inside. Why not? Right. What's not to love? So now here's the real question to that. It's on your watch. Boop, boop, boop, boop, boop.

Your clothes are dry. Your clothes are dry. Wouldn't that, when it comes to the singularity. Oh, boy. Come on now. Seriously, when all these machines are connected together, Bill. Not just that. You guys.

Come on, man. StarTalk listeners and the singularity. Yeah, go ahead. What about it? Well, isn't that, won't that? The end of the world as we know it. Oh, seriously, because if all the machines are connected and you have a centralized.

Why would it have to be centralized? Well, I'm just saying you have one machine that centralizes all these other machines, then that one machine may have the ability of communicating through all these other machines to do whatever. So instead of your clothes coming out of the dryer, you're the— You get a pastrami sandwich. Or it says, leave those clothes in there until they catch fire, or what have you. I'm going to cause chaos throughout the world because all these machines are now tied together.

So they don't do that. So just remember that having things distributed is pretty natural. By that, I mean information gets distributed. You don't have to have a central place that controls every clothes dryer. Okay. This is the guy made OK Byte.

OK Byte. Or Occ Byte. Yeah, Occ Byte. Made reference to local networks. Right. This whole thing that when you connect everything together is inherently bad and will lead to chaos, I'm not buying it. Because what if somebody just unplugs the whole thing? Then nothing happens.

That's true. That's a good thing. It'll probably be plugged in locally and run locally. It would probably be plugged in locally and run locally. This idea that there's one computer that could set all the clothes in the world on fire. Clothes have to be in the dryer. You have to turn it on. The electricity has to be working or the fuel source has to be working.

And then the worldwide singularity dryer robot has to decide it's worth doing to set all the clothes on fire. Okay, so now let's get off of my ridiculous premise. Maybe not ridiculous. Singularity is a huge thing on the show. A lot of people are very, very much into the singularity. Just one afternoon, you won't recognize the place. Unless you don't even have running water and the light. Let me ask you this. In your house.

When you look at a network, okay, any like company network. Yes. One of the ways that they hack into the network is through one of the satellite computers that is on the network. Yeah. So they go to this lower priority entry point and they get into the mainframe. Would the connection of all these devices like Occbyte is saying, would that give someone the opportunity to hack into, I don't know, your personal bank account? Yes. Yes.

Or what have you. Yes. If your dryer is connected to your phone and tells you when it's done, the world will end. We'll be back after this. This is StarTalk Radio with Chuck Nice and I'm your host, Bill Nye. Welcome back to StarTalk Cosmic Queries. This segment is brought to you by Google, and this is the maker edition. So it's makingsciencewithgoogle.com.

Makingsciencewithgoogle.com, Chuck. I hope you're feeling the excitement. You're feeling the electricity because this, my friend, is the lightning round. Give me a query, Chuck. Here's the query. This one coming from Steve Wynick. And Steve wants to know this. Standardization of parts made the Industrial Revolution possible.

What will the customization of parts for 3D printing do? Well, to make things fit together. There'll still be standards. There'll still be pressure vessel standards and threads per inch or threads per centimeter, threads per millimeter standards. It'll just be available to everybody. And the standards will not be made through hardware as such. They'll be made through software.

You'll download the ISO thread spacing, thread pitch, and you'll make all your parts perfectly fit. I was trying to get to perfect pitch, but you know what I'm driving at. It'll be electronic standards. It's going to be a piece of cake, a piece of electronic cake. Very nice. Christina Vuletic comes to us from Twitter, and she wants to know this. What progress has been made to use more than one type of material in 3D printing processes? Well, there's several different kinds of plastic already, and people have managed to print certain metals. So all sorts of progress is being made. And I like the term 3D printing, but I really prefer the term additive manufacturing,

where you add material. And if you think of it that way, it doesn't necessarily have to be a printer head going back and forth squirting out goo. Right. It could be added in another cool way. Additive manufacturing, Christina, there is your answer. Joey Rudy from Instagram wants to

know this. He says, hey, Bill, 3D printers have made it into the household, but they're not quite a home essential yet. What is the next step to making 3D printers in the home as common as dishwashers and laundry machines? I think the more people buy them, the cheaper they'll get. Like anything else, the engineers will be motivated to fine-tune them, and you make more parts. If you make more printers on an assembly line, the cost per printer will come down. You don't have to worry about it.

Just embrace it. It'll be organic. It'll just happen. Nice. All right. Oh, here's something. Speaking of making, this is from, oh God, former Staggs. I'm going to say that, but it's F. It's the lightning round. Former Staggs. Here we go. If you were to build your own classroom with maker things in it, what would it look like? And

what would you include? Matt from Kentucky wants to know this. Well, I guess it would depend on how many students you have, but you'd want to have a printer for every four students, maybe every six students. Really? That'd be cool. You can have competitions who could make the best thing. What thing would you make? My God, that's... A pen, a drinking cup, a salt shaker, a rocket engine, a planter box. And I'd want it to not only be functional, I'd want it to look good. I'd like it to be artistic. Well, you know that my little buddy,

my son, and I'm sorry, I know we're in a like and round, but that's what they're doing in his STEM. He has an afterschool STEM class that he goes to, and that's one of the things they did. He was very upset because they made a bridge. Born so long ago.

He made a bridge that failed. That's what you learned. He made a suspension bridge and it failed. And I've never seen a kid more upset in my life. Is he going to rebuild it? Is he going to redesign and rebuild it? Right on. There you go. All right. This is Seattle girl 12. She wants to know this. What do you think will be the best or most important use of 3D printers? And what impact do you think it will have? Whitney from Seattle, what's the most important thing we'll be printing? It's really hard to predict the future, Whitney. You don't have to worry about it.

Printers will be made or additive manufacturing systems will be made for every place where it's appropriate because that's what people will do. So what would you say? But the first thing for me is repair. I feel there'll be several years where stuff that is wearing out can be repaired by going to your local additive manufacturing place akin to FedEx, Kinko, or Staples and get a new juicer middle reamer thing. I love that.

And the fact is that everybody's thinking of having a printer in your home. So will it be like you have a printer in your home? I have a printer in my home, but I still go to Kinko's. That's right. So that's the way I have it. You need a lot of stuff printed. You'll need both a small scale and big scale. Right. Joseph Clark coming to us from Twitter. And he says, would 3D printing robots eventually be capable of making a 3D printed army to take over the world? Yes. You're listening to StarTalk Lightning Round with wide world citizen of the worldwide world, Chuck Nice. Here we go. How far off is printing using raw materials from asteroids?

How far off are we from using materials from asteroids as raw materials for 3D printing? Well, it depends how you look at it. Either you say everything on Earth is made of the same stuff as asteroids, asteroids as raw materials for 3D printing? Well, it depends how you look at it. Either you say everything on Earth is made of the same stuff as asteroids, so we're already doing it right now. Ha ha ha. Or when do we fly out to an asteroid and mine it? Yes. I think it's 50 years away. 50 years. It could be next weekend if somebody gets out there. The thing is, in the example of platinum. Right. There's a lot of platinum on the Earth you don't have to build a rocket to get. To find a platinum asteroid is just not so easy.

I'm not saying it won't ever be done, but the big thing is to go to an asteroid now and get the ice, the water ice, and separate it into hydrogen and oxygen using solar panels on your rocket ship, and then use that for rocket fuel, electrically produced rocket fuel. There you go. But that's not the same as 3D printing a new coffee mug or something. No, no. So I think it's a ways off, but time will tell. It's hard to predict stuff like that. Okay.

If somebody finds a particular material that you really need, and an asteroid's the only place to get it, it'll probably be sooner than you think. There you go. Here's one from AndreGamma07. Wants to know this. Think he's just having a little fun. Is it possible to 3D print a planet?

I don't think so. Thank you, though. The big thing is planets generally have enough gravity to become balls. Right. And printing or cutting things into a sphere is not so easy. So the answer would be, of course it's possible. It would just be kind of difficult. Gotcha.

All right. This is from Ian Landy, at TechnoLandy on Twitter. And Ian wants to know this. From the elementary perspective, should maker movement be experimental, free play, or scaffolded with supports? No idea what he's talking about. I think your kids go to an after school program where they learn to write code and print. That's correct. That's good.

Other people take their 3D printer, which they buy at Staples, and make stuff and send files to each other to make more stuff. You don't have to restrict this. It's happening. You just let it happen. Well, but also encourage it in schools. Right. And then let it happen outside of school.

There you have it. And that is why, what's the name of that program? StarTalk. It's called StarTalk. Oh, that's right. It's just you and me. Chuck Nice and Bill Nye. Okay.

El Sabio on Twitter says this. I love how SpaceX uses 3D printing for their Super Draco engine. Super Draco engine. Is there a chance NASA expands on this idea? First of all, what is a Super Draco engine? I don't know. It's SpaceX's rocket engine.

That's their rocket engine. And they make the bell housing, at least that's what they did in Space News. They make the nozzle 3D printer. It's cool. So keep in mind that, you guys, SpaceX is well advertised and so on, but all that technology really comes down from NASA. Ah.

Most of it's so much of what we take for granted in our modern world, the Internet especially, and this type of podcast, is a result of the space program so also keep in mind that when spacex builds a rocket they're doing it with your tax money it's usually a contract most of the time it's a contract under nasa once in a while the air force so it's not just that SpaceX is doing something, it's that we're all doing something. Yeah, and 3D printing is cool. It's cool. Additive manufacture of these exotic shapes is really a great, great way to go. Sweet. There you have it. I meant to go. All right. Hello, Sir William Nye. My name is Jason from Cincinnati, Ohio. I'm curious to hear your thoughts about the future of solar power. Do you think there will someday be a way

for anyone to have solar power? And will we be able to do a DIY for the entire setup without the need for an electrician? Well, you're talking about a lot of power. So we have electricians so they don't electrocute themselves or your neighbor and have sparks come out.

So I have solar panels on my house and they work great, but in the coming years they're going to be cheaper and better. Right. And that will enable us to, dare I say it, power the world. Yes. This has been StarTalk's lightning round with citizen of the wide world, Chuck Nice and I, Bill Nye.

Keep looking up. And turn it up loud. This is StarTalk.