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Janet sent this in and has issued a Maker challenge to build a "Plasma Pencil" - "The pencil generates a "cold plasma," which can be used to kill germs that contaminate surfaces, infect wounds and rot your teeth. In the future, it might be used to destroy tumors without damaging surrounding tissue. Laroussi, an associate professor at Old Dominion University, hopes the beam will soon find its way into doctors' and dentists' offices." Link.
DIY Plasma pencil?
Janet sent this in and has issued a Maker challenge to build a "Plasma Pencil" - "The pencil generates a "cold plasma," which can be used to kill germs that contaminate surfaces, infect wounds and rot your teeth. In the future, it might be used to destroy tumors without damaging surrounding tissue. Laroussi, an associate professor at Old Dominion University, hopes the beam will soon find its way into doctors' and dentists' offices." Link.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Oct 16, 2005 12:25 AM
Make Challenge |
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Plasma. I remember reading about the fourth state of matter in 8th grade in school in the States. I then went the next year to High school in American Samoa- this was in the late 80's. My science teacher had never heard of plasma. You can guess that I got a poor education there- in fact, it was there that I finally gave up the struggle to be interested in school.
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ok, is it just me, does no one else see the posibility of Lightsabers with this stuff?
so it cant actually cut anything, but it would still be worth it
:P
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Cold plasma ...
Is this anything like the cold fusion that was popular a few years back?
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Re: Lightsabers
You kidding me? They can get the beam up to 134C. It may not be able to cut through a spaceship door, but if you carried a small pair of O2 and H tanks, you could have your very own water boiling lightsaber!
You may not be able to kill your enemies with that blade, but you'd be sure to give them a painful booboo.
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Anyone interested? I'll try if I can get a helium tank.
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Okay guys, here's a better article with a schematic:
http://physicsweb.org/articles/news/9/9/11/1
There's also the article from Applied Physics Letters:
Room-temperature atmospheric pressure plasma plume for biomedical applications
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