Chemical Spaghetti

3-D Printer Error aka Print Spaghetti

Just what you've always wanted - now you can convert chemical recipes into a digital code that can then be read by a chemical-computer-machine that spits out designer drugs. (Don't tell the Sacklers though.)

Producing molecules on-demand is kind of a big deal, because you can't just download recipes for chemicals. The recipe for drugs, for example like Prozac or Viagra, are kind of a secret. And although it may sound cruel, these drugs were not developed with the intent to be shared freely - they were developed for profit, and that usually means protecting their recipe. With the portent of a chemputer, the whole model of drug production would have to change.

Next - although this chemputer is a bit more complicated, we can think about it as a high-definition 3-D printer. High definition because you're controlling the printing material down to the molecular level. A related story on this tells us that the military is trying to grow its own drones. And Science is already growing its own organs, aka organoids.


Notes:
'Chemputer' promises app-controlled revolution for drug production
Nov 2018, phys.org
Lifting the lid on future military aircraft technologies
2016, BAE Systems
Lab-grown ‘mini brains’ produce electrical patterns that resemble those of premature babies
2018, Nature
Continuous Liquid Interface Production

Implosion Fabrication uses lasers to shrink manufactured objects down to nanoscale
2019, MIT

3-D printing 100 times faster with light
Jan 2019, phys.org

4-D-printed materials can be stiff as wood or soft as sponge
Mar 2019, phys.org


Other Strange Computers:
Magic Dust Supercomputer
Slime Computers
Weird Computers 
Network Address, 2013
Crystal Calculators
DNA

Architrays

Architecture inspired concrete desk accessories - The Islam. 

The artist/teacher/architect/art historian in me is really excited about this project that recently debuted - Architrays are an art history lesson in the form of indulgent decoration. These concrete trays are designed and fabricated by 7thFl, an industrial design duo (from the New Jersey Institute of Technology, same place I spent a good 5 years of my life learning about sustainable design). Each tray they make represents a historical period of architecture, from Gothic to Roman to the Islam tray pictured above. When it comes to geometric design, Islam knows what's up.

Here you see an example of how this kind of design is developed from a very simple algorithm, genius in its simplicity. You start with a circle, then you draw another circle so that its center lies anywhere on the first circle. Then you draw a third circle, again so that its center lies on the first circle, BUT so that the center of all three circles now make an equilateral triangle with 60 degree angles.

If you repeat this pattern all around the first circle, you get a hexagon. Look at the points of the image in the upper left, and see that they can make equilateral triangles and a hexagon. This is the starting point for the most complex, most beautiful of patterns.  And this is the theme cast into concrete by 7thFl for their Islamic Architray. In other words, these 'architrays' are a beautiful reminder of a rich history of art, design, and architecture. Check it out