“The more you tighten your grip, Tarkin, the more star systems will slip through your fingers.”
– Princess Leia, “Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope”
1. Engineers Build Bridges, Geckos Fix Them
“The tech certainly ticks off the dirty and dangerous boxes of automation. It’s designed to scale structures in extremely demanding and difficult settings. The robots spot damage that is often too subtle to be viewed with the human eye, and Gecko’s software helps determine potential problem areas.”
2. Entanglement-Free Quantum Metrology
Have you ever tried to determine the spin (or quantum state) of a subatomic particle without imparting said spin on another subatomic particle? Of course, you haven’t. You think “within a micron” is accurate. Psh. Entanglement can be a pain.
3. Not the “CNC” You Were Expecting
“MIT’s new plant-based material could replace plastics.” No, it can’t. “Sustainability” is a toxic buzzword that knows no bounds. Now it’s infected its way into the greatest university I could never hope of getting into. Cellulose nanocrystals (CNC), or nanocellulose, are commonly sourced from wood pulp – what paper is made from. By modern means, the energy cost to produce 1 metric ton of CNC is 1 MWh (megawatt hour) – the annual energy equivalent of running your clothes dryer. Most modern plastics are a biproduct of cracking crude oil for fuel, and they can’t give that stuff away. Sorry, I don’t mean to be a Debby Downer. This research is good, and there is hope. We’ll get there, but don’t get it twisted: We’re still a ways away.
4. Bioprinting is Trending Right Now
We don’t typically pay much attention to bioprinting and/or medical. Every now and then, I throw something in here relating to 3D-printed foods because I really want a pizza, and #youpeople love emailing me with your disgust for 3D-printed meat. Bioprinting, however, is trending a bit right now and has been all year (which is when I started paying attention, so it could go further back). Here’s the latest to pop in my feed.
5. Machine Maintenance Controversy
This is admittedly rather off topic, but I NEED to talk about it! Are #youpeople familiar with the McDonald’s ice cream machine meme? Long story short: They’re almost always broken, and it has been upsetting the strange people of the internet for decades. There's even a website dedicated to tracking whether a McDonald's location's machine is up or down. As I write this, about 12% of these ice cream machines around the ENTIRE WORLD are DOWN! Dude, take a moment to paint this picture for me: Let’s say you’re the biggest global manufacturer in the world, and 12% of your machine tools are down … WHAT ARE YOU EVEN DOING? Anyway. It’s not just a meme. The laughter is to hide the tears, and the tears stem from this.
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