WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:16.466 align:middle line:90% 00:00:16.466 --> 00:00:20.804 align:middle line:84% And so I'll show you just a couple in my why this matters. 00:00:20.804 --> 00:00:23.473 align:middle line:84% Because glass is, after all, made of-- there 00:00:23.473 --> 00:00:25.141 align:middle line:84% it is up there in case you can't see it. 00:00:25.141 --> 00:00:29.746 align:middle line:84% This is the abundance of elements versus atomic number, 00:00:29.746 --> 00:00:32.048 align:middle line:84% and you notice the very top two elements 00:00:32.048 --> 00:00:37.787 align:middle line:84% are silicon and oxygen. And so it would be really nice if we 00:00:37.787 --> 00:00:39.923 align:middle line:84% could make a lot of stuff out of these really 00:00:39.923 --> 00:00:41.291 align:middle line:90% abundant cheap elements. 00:00:41.291 --> 00:00:43.693 align:middle line:90% Think sand. 00:00:43.693 --> 00:00:47.697 align:middle line:84% Could I take sand and make a lot of stuff out of it? 00:00:47.697 --> 00:00:49.499 align:middle line:90% Well, not if I can't control. 00:00:49.499 --> 00:00:54.304 align:middle line:84% Not if I have to heat it up to 3,000 degrees or its viscosity 00:00:54.304 --> 00:00:56.873 align:middle line:84% isn't what I want or it doesn't give me the properties I want, 00:00:56.873 --> 00:00:58.842 align:middle line:90% but that has changed. 00:00:58.842 --> 00:01:01.378 align:middle line:90% That has fundamentally changed. 00:01:01.378 --> 00:01:03.513 align:middle line:84% So we can now look at materials like this, 00:01:03.513 --> 00:01:05.749 align:middle line:84% these super-abundant materials, and we can completely 00:01:05.749 --> 00:01:06.349 align:middle line:90% rethink them. 00:01:06.349 --> 00:01:07.951 align:middle line:90% And I'll give you one example. 00:01:07.951 --> 00:01:09.419 align:middle line:84% It's already a few years old, but I 00:01:09.419 --> 00:01:12.589 align:middle line:84% think it's just a really cool idea, which 00:01:12.589 --> 00:01:14.391 align:middle line:90% is called the Solar Sinter. 00:01:14.391 --> 00:01:17.327 align:middle line:84% And here he's developed this machine 00:01:17.327 --> 00:01:19.362 align:middle line:90% that is entirely solar powered. 00:01:19.362 --> 00:01:21.431 align:middle line:84% They're solar cells for the electricity. 00:01:21.431 --> 00:01:26.136 align:middle line:84% And it's a focused beam of light from the sun that 00:01:26.136 --> 00:01:29.039 align:middle line:84% gets hot enough to engineer the glass. 00:01:29.039 --> 00:01:32.042 align:middle line:84% So he takes sand from the desert that he's in. 00:01:32.042 --> 00:01:34.944 align:middle line:84% He puts it in a container, and he's got a 3D printer 00:01:34.944 --> 00:01:36.112 align:middle line:90% that he's made. 00:01:36.112 --> 00:01:38.014 align:middle line:90% It's entirely solar powered. 00:01:38.014 --> 00:01:42.185 align:middle line:84% There's no fossil fuels, but he can take sand and turn it 00:01:42.185 --> 00:01:45.088 align:middle line:90% into something structural. 00:01:45.088 --> 00:01:47.690 align:middle line:84% And so there's a vase that he's made, 00:01:47.690 --> 00:01:49.192 align:middle line:90% and you can take that out. 00:01:49.192 --> 00:01:50.894 align:middle line:84% And again, that's just the beginning 00:01:50.894 --> 00:01:53.530 align:middle line:84% of rethinking what we could do with these super-abundant 00:01:53.530 --> 00:01:54.364 align:middle line:90% materials. 00:01:54.364 --> 00:01:58.935 align:middle line:84% Here's an example from also a few years ago from an MIT lab. 00:01:58.935 --> 00:02:02.205 align:middle line:84% This is Neri Oxman's lab, and she's in the Mediated Matter 00:02:02.205 --> 00:02:06.743 align:middle line:84% lab here at MIT, and she's developed a 3D printer. 00:02:06.743 --> 00:02:07.410 align:middle line:90% [VIDEO PLAYBACK] 00:02:07.410 --> 00:02:09.211 align:middle line:90% [MUSIC PLAYBACK] 00:02:09.211 --> 00:02:14.217 align:middle line:84% And so there it is printing something with glass. 00:02:14.217 --> 00:02:17.887 align:middle line:84% And she can print lots of different designs now using 00:02:17.887 --> 00:02:18.588 align:middle line:90% glass. 00:02:18.588 --> 00:02:20.924 align:middle line:90% She has a cool video. 00:02:20.924 --> 00:02:22.659 align:middle line:90% And there is the printhead. 00:02:30.100 --> 00:03:05.201 align:middle line:90% And again, 1,900 Fahrenheit. 00:03:05.201 --> 00:03:08.138 align:middle line:84% I'm not sure that I want a 1,900 Fahrenheit 00:03:08.138 --> 00:03:11.241 align:middle line:90% printer on my desktop. 00:03:11.241 --> 00:03:14.777 align:middle line:84% But as you can imagine, what they had to do-- 00:03:14.777 --> 00:03:17.113 align:middle line:84% I'll just give you one more example and then we'll stop. 00:03:17.113 --> 00:03:18.948 align:middle line:84% What they had to do is understand everything 00:03:18.948 --> 00:03:19.949 align:middle line:90% we've just talked about. 00:03:19.949 --> 00:03:22.485 align:middle line:84% How do you engineer the viscosity, the melting point 00:03:22.485 --> 00:03:24.754 align:middle line:84% to make it all work in a 3D printer? 00:03:24.754 --> 00:03:26.389 align:middle line:84% The last point I'll give you is this. 00:03:26.389 --> 00:03:27.056 align:middle line:90% I love this. 00:03:27.056 --> 00:03:28.391 align:middle line:90% This is from a few years ago. 00:03:28.391 --> 00:03:31.294 align:middle line:84% It's a group in Japan that made a glass that 00:03:31.294 --> 00:03:34.631 align:middle line:90% is as strong as steel. 00:03:34.631 --> 00:03:36.599 align:middle line:84% And what they talk about-- this is what I like. 00:03:36.599 --> 00:03:39.168 align:middle line:84% They say just think of a world where your smartphone wouldn't 00:03:39.168 --> 00:03:39.668 align:middle line:90% shatter. 00:03:39.668 --> 00:03:41.504 align:middle line:90% OK, cool. 00:03:41.504 --> 00:03:44.440 align:middle line:84% Buildings could be bolstered against natural disasters, even 00:03:44.440 --> 00:03:45.141 align:middle line:90% cooler. 00:03:45.141 --> 00:03:46.776 align:middle line:84% And then somehow they bring it down. 00:03:46.776 --> 00:03:48.811 align:middle line:84% Wine glasses are reassuringly safe. 00:03:48.811 --> 00:03:50.579 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:03:50.579 --> 00:03:52.348 align:middle line:90% Was that really a problem? 00:03:52.348 --> 00:03:54.083 align:middle line:90% I don't know. 00:03:54.083 --> 00:03:56.886 align:middle line:84% And what they did, fabrication was 00:03:56.886 --> 00:03:59.856 align:middle line:84% conducted using an aerodynamic levitation furnace where 00:03:59.856 --> 00:04:02.625 align:middle line:84% ingredients were floated in the air using oxygen gas 00:04:02.625 --> 00:04:05.395 align:middle line:84% and melted together using CO2 lasers, 00:04:05.395 --> 00:04:08.331 align:middle line:84% and they get a transparent superglass with 50% alumina. 00:04:08.331 --> 00:04:12.335 align:middle line:84% That was so hard to do because the aluminum didn't 00:04:12.335 --> 00:04:13.603 align:middle line:90% want to be a glass. 00:04:13.603 --> 00:04:17.940 align:middle line:84% It wanted to go and become a metal, a crystal. 00:04:17.940 --> 00:04:19.409 align:middle line:84% But by doing it this way, they were 00:04:19.409 --> 00:04:22.712 align:middle line:84% able to capture it in the disorder. 00:04:22.712 --> 00:04:23.112 align:middle line:90% All right, have a great night.