Space.com
EBF3 requires a few crucial components: power for its electron beam, a vacuum environment, and a source of metals. While “Star Trek’s” replicator could work without a supply of subatomic particles, reality is a different story.
“It’d be nice if we could build something from nothing, but it doesn’t work that way,” Taminger told SPACE.com.
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old news
GW_SS-Delta on November 5, 2009 at 10:14 PM
bummer when those laws of thermodynamics get in the way
John the Libertarian on November 5, 2009 at 10:14 PM
Yes, but does it make earlgrey tea?
Wingnut on November 5, 2009 at 10:15 PM
No , but almost..
the_nile on November 5, 2009 at 10:16 PM
Well, at least we can provide health care for all for nothing here on earth.
Can this thing make pitchforks?
WashJeff on November 5, 2009 at 10:19 PM
Until science makes a third boob I will remain unimpressed.
abobo on November 5, 2009 at 10:26 PM
Just have it make red shirts.
KillerKane on November 5, 2009 at 10:32 PM
meh. Let me know when someone builds a holodeck populated with beautiful supermodels.
UltimateBob on November 5, 2009 at 10:36 PM
Great! NASA can spend $20 Billion inventing this then another $20 Billion researching how it hurts the environment and then another $40 Billion inventing a replacement for it which they will then crash into the surface of Mars.
29Victor on November 5, 2009 at 10:37 PM
Make three red shirts. One for Pelosi, one for Reid, and I’ll let you guess who gets the other.
boomer on November 5, 2009 at 10:41 PM
But is it cheaper than Chinese Prison Labor?
- The Cat
MirCat on November 5, 2009 at 10:54 PM
Wasting billions is no big deal — Geithner, Bernanke, & co. already have a magic machine that makes money out of thin air. Problem solved.
red winger on November 5, 2009 at 11:15 PM
Once again, liberals imitate who they really are. Smearing South Carolina because North Charleston got the new Boeing facility (along with 4,000 jobs…non-union jobs). F U David Horsey of the Seatlle Post-Intelligencer
SouthernGent on November 5, 2009 at 11:21 PM
And here I thought you were going for the “sense of scale” angle, that Geithner et al were already bored wasting mere trillions, and were hard at work spending quadrillions to research what number comes after that.
Kidding aside though, I wish they’d mentioned how long it takes to get something useful out of it. Lead time of months for a microchip, years for a hammer? Pass. Lead time of a minute for a chip, an hour for a hammer? Now you’re talking.
Blacksmith on November 5, 2009 at 11:27 PM
Then how to explain Obama?
beachgirlusa on November 6, 2009 at 12:02 AM
Or Pelosi…or Reid…or Schumer…or Chris Matthews…or Olby…or…………
beachgirlusa on November 6, 2009 at 12:02 AM
Tea. Earl Grey. Hot.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2IJdfxWtPM
Best Star Trek Captain! (*ducks, runs*)
JeepGirl on November 6, 2009 at 12:34 AM
Hm… or evolution, I guess.
somewhatconcerned on November 6, 2009 at 12:47 AM
I really hate the term “microgravity” for what is more properly called “free fall”.
The gravity at the altitude of the ISS is barely less than it is at the surface of the earth. It’s just that the ISS is allowed to fall freely, so the astronauts inside it fall at the same speed.
The Monster on November 6, 2009 at 1:04 AM
Pelosi is the third boob – right after Obama and Biden.
Ronnie on November 6, 2009 at 1:40 AM
Tie between Picard and Janeway imo
beachgirlusa on November 6, 2009 at 1:45 AM
The Doctor, best “Star Trek” character ever!
beachgirlusa on November 6, 2009 at 2:04 AM
OT: Steyn is in for Rush this friday.
mudskipper on November 6, 2009 at 4:53 AM
Stereo-lithography using metal. Excellent.
Also, Star Trek doesn’t always represent fabricators as creating material from energy alone. Our own Captain Ed once worked out the mechanics of using human waste streams as source matter for replicators, though I don’t think that episode ever aired…so to speak.
Maquis on November 6, 2009 at 6:26 AM
I thought the replicators drew from a raw matter storage area. I think there may even have been a show about the raw matter storage being screwed up and they had no food. Then again I could be thinking of some other reality show.
RagTag on November 6, 2009 at 6:32 AM
That was how I thought they worked. Everything was recycled into raw matter storage and used by the replicators. I never remember anything about replicators creating something from nothing. I think the holo-deck did create stuff from nothing but that was why it couldn’t be taken from the holo-deck. Outside of the holo-deck it reverted into energy again.
RagTag on November 6, 2009 at 6:35 AM
I always thought so. He was the only good actor on the show. The borg babe was the next best character until she picked the that so very lame and crappy actor chipok or what ever his so forgettable character was called.
RagTag on November 6, 2009 at 6:38 AM
Perhaps you’re thinking of BSG, when they were forced to visit the algae planet for food stores due to a contaminated food production system?
Maquis on November 6, 2009 at 6:54 AM
Nah, this won’t work, it didn’t get an EPA rating, causes Martian Warming.
StuLongIsland on November 6, 2009 at 6:59 AM
“Make it So.”
loudmouth883 on November 6, 2009 at 7:09 AM
NASA is so freakin’ cool. I can’t wait see them get back to the Moon.
Tony737 on November 6, 2009 at 7:24 AM
A prominent environmentalist is pissed that the “Climate Change” lie has been totally exposed:
Call the CDC: British “believer” says “climate change denial is spreading like a contagious disease”
From Monbiot’s latest screed:
The free market has rigged the Amazon chart, oh the humanity!
If the name looks familiar it’s because this muppet tried to perform a “citizens arrest” of John Bolton. Oh and here’s the petition he’s upset about: http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/proveit.aspx , I clicked ‘count me out’ so I’m expecting the Climate Police to accost me at any moment.
mudskipper on November 6, 2009 at 7:41 AM
Shatner baby, Shatner.
I wonder if it can make a chicken salad sandwich and a coffee.
Scoreboard44 on November 6, 2009 at 8:17 AM
I just thought of the Gemini thingy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRnSnfiUI54
KHAAAANNNNNN!!!
Scoreboard44 on November 6, 2009 at 8:19 AM
Wait…I meant Genesis.
Scoreboard44 on November 6, 2009 at 8:21 AM
I just spit coffee all over the place.
Mommynator on November 6, 2009 at 9:26 AM
Star Trek’s explanation of replicators was always excessively dumb anyway. Why “create” matter from energy, when you already have “transporters” that could presumably beam atoms from storage vats to the appropriate locations?
Count to 10 on November 6, 2009 at 9:48 AM
This has been around for a while, but this is the first time that I’ve heard of them doing it with metal, in zero-g. Which, all in all, is pretty cool.
percival on November 6, 2009 at 10:04 AM
Pretty soon it won’t be allowed to fall. As soon as they get the space elevator designed and built.
Oh beachgirlusa, just because shiny cranium covers make you warm . . .
platypus on November 6, 2009 at 11:17 AM