Is a Glowforge Nano in our future?

If we combined the unique camera recognition capabilities of the current Glowforge with a UV pulsed laser, the Glowforge could be the enabling technology that makes all types of flexible electronic structures and sensors possible. I would humbly suggest that the Glowforge team should reach out to these people to explore the infinite possibilities a collaboration might open up. The very ubiquitous sensors and cameras from cell phones that make the Glowforge possible could, via a Glowforge Nano, make new advanced tricorder like capabilities flourish in new handheld devices/phones and might even be enabling tech for a future replicator. Graphene oxide varies from black to blue to red in color, while graphene varies from colorless to black. Graphene is 100 times stronger than steel (actually the strongest material ever made by man; anyone have applications for that?), can levitate above a magnet, and many other exotic properties (See attached wikipedia sites for many more). One young international science fair winner attached an antibody to pancreatic cancer on the end of a graphene electrode and developed a technique for instantly detecting cancer in a person. The conductive graphene can sense (via its changing resistance) when a cancer cell binds with its antibody. As a Purdue Alumni, I would be happy to help with any introductions with the Purdue researchers.

The basic premise and promise of the technology linked here, as I envision it, is as follows. Graphene oxide is inkjet printed on a substrate (paper, plastic, etc) and the cameras of Glowforge Nano, scan the substrate and the UV laser scans the entire printed content, converting the graphene oxide to a nano structured, conductive graphene film. This strong film is used in making sensors, fibers, lenses, magnetic materials, selective membranes, luminescent materials, quantum dots, etc, etc. See the image below.

http://pubs.rsc.org/en/Content/ArticleLanding/2016/NR/C6NR04310K#!divAbstract

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Interesting idea!

(Long as they deliver the bigger ones to us “first”! Chuckle!)
:smile:

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Yes, of course! It is fun to consider where the company might go in the future though. :slight_smile:

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ncomms8767.pdf (715.7 KB)

Tunable LED based on graphene oxide being partially reduced to graphene.

http://www.graphene-info.com/graphene-sensors

http://ac.els-cdn.com/S0925400515005146/1-s2.0-S0925400515005146-main.pdf?_tid=e6a22150-71f1-11e6-afcf-00000aab0f27&acdnat=1472919625_89db411cb1e650431e7b94aa6d12eac3

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Now, imagine your cellphone charging next to your bed as you sleep. It detects carbon monoxide in the air and rings to alert you to it. You’re out on the town and you breathe on your phone and it alerts you to your alcohol concentration. You place a drop of your drink on a depression on the phone and it alerts you that your drink has been spiked. Holding it in your hand, it alerts you to dangerous blood sugar levels or senses cardiac problems before you have a heart attack. That’s but a few of the applications of sensors that could be produced by this method. And especially exciting is the fact that an average user with Glowforge Nano capabilities could make and print their own sensors at home (provided they could inkjet print graphene oxide). :slight_smile:

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Graphene is so cool, it is like magic. Good thing we don’t burn people at the stake for witchcraft anymore.

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I NOOOOO!!! Last time I researched graphene I was lost in its magic for a whole weekend! Keep your magical properties away!

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Super cool! Let us ship first, then we’ll get right on that. :wink:

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And to add the upgraded capabilities to the Glowforge, all one needs is dvd / Blu ray writing capability and the ability to shut off the CO2 laser on demand. A graphene based holographic disc storage system was just made. Talk about an enabling technology!

srep02819.pdf (582.6 KB)

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I am going to make a prediction. A 3D holographic quantum dot array (possibly one created by something like a Glowforge Nano) will be the enabling technology for replicators via its use as a pattern buffer. In an earlier post from the “To boldly go…” topic, I wrote and @pomwah summarized:

An apple would be destructively scanned with a laser and its info transferred to this buffer. Unlike other storage devices, it would capture all of the captured entangled state info between the particles because of the holographic interconnection of the quantum dots. Here the info would be transferred to awaiting placeholder atoms via an atom laser and the entangled data in the buffer. The stored data could make a new apple copy in the future without destroying a new apple. I will elaborate in the “To boldly go…” post. There is a new potentially revolutionary paper claiming to have unified quantum entanglement (EPR) physics with the physics of a black hole (ER physics). It claims ER=EPR (meaning quantum entanglement and black holes are different scale manifestations of the same physics.

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This is beginning to scare me a bit…why do i have the sudden feeling we are one day going to just wink out of existence? Chuckle!:sunglasses:

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No wish to philosophise but … “how do you know we haven’t?”

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:open_mouth:

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That’s a favorite of Elon Musk.

If we consider the progress we’ve made in virtual and augmented reality in just the past few years, it’s reasonable to assume we would someday progress to the point we could create a VR simulation that is indistinguishable from reality (a la the Star Trek holodeck).

If you believe that to be possible, then how do you know that we have not already done so and we are part of someone’s simulation?

I used to scoff at that & the Matrix movies. But, my son is building a holodeck at Syracuse University and I’ve experienced some of the first step stuff with the HTC Vive “room”. I was blown away by the immersiveness of the experience.

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We already have a hologenerator and it is called a brain. To truly appreciate that everything we experience is already a simulation manufactured by our brains is the first step to wisdom. We do not need to recreate reality at a material level. We only need to recreate it at better resolution than our brains can handle.

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We are just Sims in the 200th version of the game going about our little Sim life while someone watches us on their coffee break.

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“Cogito ergo sum” becomes less and less of a reality … but … if we can pass the Turing test, or is the simulation so good that we “think” we can, in the same way that we “think” we come up with original ideas.

“Oops, I’m no longer in Kansas”

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I think you have it :slightly_smiling_face:

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