#printer ink storage

[giazhou1]

The sponge is usually located at the bottom of the inkjet printer cartridge and absorbs ink. When the printer needs to eject ink, the nozzle draws the ink from the small sponge to print the pattern onto the paper. Therefore, the quality of the sponge directly affects the printing effect.

[hellenhighwater]

Hmm....how hard can large scale mosaic possibly be? I feel like my plans for the room I'm working on could use something really shiny and impactful and maybe I want to make a fold-down cutting table and maybe I want to do it out of mosaic, even though that will be ungodly heavy.

It's a fun idea. I'm not sure if it's a good idea.

I haven't done mosaic since a one-off high school art class but I feel like the component skills are ones I already have, sooooo....

I have been keeping to a blue and gold celestial theme for both my guest room and my art workspaces, because if and when I move those spaces are likely to be combined. Cutting table, even though it would be for a different room, falls in the same vein, so I'm thinking something with a nice dark night sky and maybe some branches or leaves...

[maybebored]

Dream 5

Hey non existent people who read my dream journals, sorry about the lack of dreams written recently, I've been super busy. Anyways, gonna start sending a few different dreams that I noted down but didn't publish.

Today's is today's.

I forgot the first part but we'll pick up where there's a lizard 🦎 that controlled this machine that did something with the place but I can't remember what. The lizard had an outfit on that was soft but also cool to touch with a specific cooling fabric and I readjusted their Velcro straps that held the thing to the lizard. And there was a controller that had a specific sound and would be able to tell the lizard how we wanted it to work the machine. This was like outside but with those tent top things 🎪 but without walls. ♥️ Red color. Kinda hot environment so I was a little worried about the lizard overheating. It was big, like the size of a iguana.

Anyways, I moved on from there after attaching the cloth and straps on the lizard and went back to my dorm room that I apparently shared with four other people. It was a strange room in like a castle 🏰 tower sort of feel. There was a lot of stuff everywhere, different styles. Next to the door was a roll top desk style table without the roll. Piano table style ish. I was looking for something but I can't remember what now. Anyways, we had a printer on top of that table and my two roommates were complaining about somebody using too much printing 🖨️ and allowing someone else outside our roommates to use the printer to print lots of stuff. Someone with a name starting with blue was using it. Weird. Anyways, i think it's my rl roommate doing this cuz she keeps doing stuff without thinking. I did print a whole research paper the other day but I don't usually use the printer so I knew it wasn't me. The printer ink was expensive apparently.

So the girls leave the room for something and I'm shuffling around the room trying to find whatever I was looking for and then one of my professors come into the room to ask if I live here and have a key to the room. I tell her yes and ask her why she's asking. I demonstrate by locking the door to the room. I usually keep my 🔑 keys on me. She wants access to the storage room and I'm confused but there's a door handle above the piano/roll desk and I told her yeah it's been locked since the beginning of the year and I tried to enter before. She's like, did you try using the room key? I moved the piano/roll desk, tried, and the door opened.

I was going to go in but then I hear my roommates trying to get back into the room since I had locked the door, i have to go out and unlock the door. I was trying to do it quickly and get back into the storage room before they got in so I could just explore freely without their interference but yeah, they saw the storage door open when they walked in so they wanted to go there too.

Inside was a very interesting storage room. Like lots of cool things. Some inflatable ham and other meat items. Strange but very cool. The room didn't just stay stagnant, the more I walked in, the longer the room seems to get. There was a stream in the middle of the room and one of my roommates walked into the stream and all the way to the end of the room where there was a sorta place where the stream continued into another room. We followed her and around the corner where the stream bend and down some stairs. Soon we found ourselves outside. It's strange, just one short flight of stairs and we found ourselves outside in a woodsy sort of area with the stream growing a bit deeper into a river. We walked by the side of the stream and stopped at an area. I looked over yonder and there was a party of some sort going on. Most people were dressed in shades of blue and stuff, lots of blue lights. I used my phone camera to zoom into the group to see some people performing, probably some famous people, on top of this cylindrical structure, there were three of them. The woman on top of the tallest cylindrical structure has a whiteish blue tinted shirt with bright blue LEDs which made her kinda glow blue. And a backup dancer with her or something. Anyways strange sight. 🔵

I woke up.

[the-mango-ninja]

WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU MEAN THE MINECRAFT PRINTER HAS INK CARTRIDGES

[galaxygolfergirl]

Watcher's Expenses

I didn't major in accounting: I took three classes and it grinded my brain to a fine powder. However, after graduating with a business admin degree, being a former eager fan of their videos, and from a cursory glance over their socials, there's a lot to consider in their spending behavior that really could start racking up costs. Some of these things we've already noticed, but there are other things I'd like to highlight, and I'll try to break it down into the different categories of accounting expenses (if I get something wrong, let me know. I was more concentrated in marketing 🤷‍♀️). I'm not going to hypothesize numbers either, as that would take out more time than I'm willing to afford-- you can assume how much everything costs. Anyways, here's my attempt at being a layman forensic accountant:

Note: All of this is assuming they're operating above board and not engaging in any illegal practices such as money laundering, tax evasion, not paying rent, etc.

Operating Expenses

Payroll: 25+ staff salaries and insurance

Overhead Expenses

CEO/founder salaries

Office space leasing or rent (In L.A, one of the most expensive cities in the US)

Utilities (water, electricity, heating, sanitation, etc.)

Insurance

Advertising Costs

Telephone & Internet service

Cloud Storage or mainframe

Office equipment (furniture, computers, printers, etc.)

Office supplies (paper, pens, printer ink, etc.)

Marketing costs (Social media marketing on Instagram, Youtube, SEO for search engines, Twitter, etc. Designing merchandise and posters, art, etc. )

Human Resources (not sure how equipped they are)

Accounting fees

Property taxes

Legal fees

Licensing fees

Website maintenance (For Watchertv.com, Watcherstuff.com, & Watcherentertainment.com)

Expenses regarding merchandising (whoever they contract or outsource for that)

Inventory costs

Potentially maintenance of company vehicles

Subsequent gas mileage for road trips

Depreciation (pertains to tangible assets like buildings and equipment)

Amortization (intangible assets such as patents and trademarks)

Overhead Travel and Entertainment Costs (I think one of the biggest culprits, evident in their videos and posts)

The travel expenses (flights, train trips, rental cars, etc. For main team and scouts)

Hotel expenses for 7-8 people at least, or potentially more

Breakfasts, lunches and dinners with the crew (whether that's fully on their dime or not, I don't know; Ryan stated they like to cover that for the most part)

Recreational activities (vacation destinations, amusement parks, sporting activities etc.)

The location fees

Extraneous Overhead costs (not sure exactly where these fall under, but another culprit, evident in videos and posts)

Paying for guest appearances

Expensive filming & recording equipment (Cameras, sound equipment, editing software subscriptions, etc.)

The overelaborate sets for Ghost files, Mystery Files, Puppet History, Podcasts etc. (Set dressing: Vintage memorabilia, antiquated tech, vintage furniture, props, etc.)

Kitchen & Cooking supplies/equipment

Office food supply; expensive food and drink purchases for videos

Novelty items or miscellaneous purchases (ex. Ghost hunting equipment, outfits, toys, etc.)

Non-Operating Expenses

These are those expenses that cannot be linked back to operating revenue. One of the most common examples of non-operating expenses is interest expense. This is because while interest is the cost of borrowing money from a creditor or a bank, they are not generating any operating income. This makes interest payments a part of non-operating expenses.

Financial Expenses

Potential loan payments, borrowing from creditors or lenders, bank loans, etc.

Variable Expenses

Hiring a large amount of freelancers, overtime expenditure, commissions, etc.

PR consultations (Not sure if they had this before the scandal)

Extraordinary Expenses

Expenses incurred outside your company’s regular business activities and during a large one-time event or transactions. For example, selling land, disposal of a significant asset, laying off of your employees, unexpected machine repairing or replacement, etc.

Accrued Expenses

When your business has incurred an expense but not yet paid for it.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(If there's anything else I'm missing, please feel free to add or correct things)

To a novice or a young entrepreneur, this can be very intimidating if you don't have the education or the support to manage it properly. I know it intimidates the hell out of me and I'm still having to fill in the gaps (again, if I've mislabeled or gotten anything wrong here, please let me know). For the artistic or creative entrepreneur, it can be even harder to reconcile the extent of your creative passions with your ability to operate and scale your business at a sustainable rate. That can lead to irresponsible, selfish, and impulsive decisions that could irreparably harm your brand, which is a whole other beast of its own.

My guess at this point is that their overhead and operation expenses are woefully mismanaged; they've made way too many extraneous purchases, and that they had too much confidence in their audience of formerly 2.93 million to make up for the expenses they failed to cover.

It almost seems as if their internal logic was, "If we make more money, we can keep living the expensive lifestyle that we want and make whatever we want without anyone telling us we can't, and we want to do it NOW, sooner rather than later because we don't want wait and compromise our vision." But as you can see, the reality of fulfilling those ambitions is already compromised by the responsibility of running a business.

And I wrote this in another post here, but I'll state it again: Running a business means you need to be educated on how a business can successfully and efficiently operate. Accounting, marketing, social media marketing, public relations, production, etc; these resources and internet of things is available and at your disposal. If they had invested more time in educating themselves on those aspects and not made this decision based on artistic passion (and/or greed), they would have not gotten the response they got.

Being a graphic designer, I know the creative/passionate side of things but I also got a degree/got educated in business because I wanted to understand how to start a company and run it successfully. If they’re having trouble handling the responsibility of doing that, managing production costs, managing overhead expenses, and especially with compensating their 25+ employees, then they should hire professionals that are sympathetic to their creative interests, but have the education and experience to reign in bad decisions like these.

Anyways, thanks for coming to my TedTalk. What a shitshow this has been.

[olderthannetfic]

Some more book care tips, for people who have a nice copy that they don't want to destroy in a few decades (paperback or hardback, high or low quality).

Don't use newspaper as a long term bookmark. It's acidic as hell and will eat through a page. The same goes for cheap note paper, toilet paper, and reciepts, though newpaper is by far the worst. Find a scrap of regular printer paper for any bookmark that might get left in for a matter or years rather than days (eg, reference notes and favourite passages). Any bookmark that's left in for half a decade will leave a mark as the two papers age differently, but anything acidic will degrade the paper, and newspaper will burn through the page.

NO SCOTCH TAPE. Please, stop taping accidental tears, you will regret it in ten years when the adhesive turns into horrible sticky dust and the plastic starts crumbling. You can repair a tear with (acid free) tissue paper and craft glue, which sounds fancy but it actually as easy as using tape.

If you want to write in a book, grab a pen with acid-free "archival" ink. I've seen century old paper with holes in the shape letters where an acidic ink ate through the page. Most half decent writing pens that can be expected to write a whole page without clogging are acid-free.

And, if possible, place your bookshelf somewhere that doesn't get direct sunlight, isn't right on an air conditioning vent, and is not too close to a kitchen stove. Books are designed to be stored on a shelf in the long term, they don't need any special storage unless they're already damaged or very very old, but they will fade in the sunlight, and humidity fluctuations and grease and smoke from cooking can cause issues over time.

--

[ancient-trees]

Some process stuff for #webcomicday! For the most recent chapters I've been doing the initial layouts and rough sketches digitally, then printing them out in light blue to do the final pencils, inks, and watercolor ink washes on paper.

Tamuran is an epic fantasy comic about an assortment of shapeshifters, outcasts, monsters, and other thoroughly unqualified people attempting to save a cursed kingdom. It's recommended for readers aged older teen and up.

Full process step images and details below the cut.

Layout/thumbnail sketch. Figuring out the movie-directing, storytelling elements and what goes where on the page. This one's a bit of a montage as Effire (the cobra) is traveling through a more desolate section of the palace and talking telepathically with his partner Morgen, who's back in their room.

Rough digital sketch stage. Also some perspective rulers and grids for guidelines. Sometimes I'll build a basic 3D model in Sketchup if I have a room or a set that I'm going to use a lot and need to keep consistent (like Morgen's rooms), but I didn't need anything that involved for the one-off storage room shots here.

Final pencils. I print out the rough sketch in light cyan on Canson watercolor paper and then refine the lines over it (the blue printer ink lifts out when I soak the paper to prep it for painting).

Inks. Diluted Deleter #4 ink, dip pens with maru and G nibs. A lot of the texture details will disappear in the shading, but they're fun to do anyway.

Watercolor ink washes and some white gel pen for the finishing touches. After I scan and adjust it I can also fix anything that needs fixing - like how I initially drew Morgen's hunting knife a bit too long in the fifth panel.

[kurjat]

The place mom works at is trying 2 get rid of printing materials bc they have a new printer in storage & the old stuff doesnt work on it so im committing office theft and making a uhh subtle doctor who classic intro shirt stencil :D I have some old shirts w paint & ink stains that i may be able to pep up w this. MIGHT test it out tomorrow between cleaning & organizing. we'll see!!

[siremasterlawrence]

Real 3-D

Real enhanced 3-d dimensional projects are some of the craziest things I have ever seen in my life as I walk in to the room with the printer and projector in one.

It arrives to my apartment with a hard thud in the background as I lift it up and carry it inside the place kicking the door in as I drop it to the floor.

I pick up my box cutter from my storage unit digging into the top of the box I carefully cut the box open and remove the contents which include this.

Reaching in I lift the box on to the wooden desk left specifically for it as I clean it up then plug it in as I turn the device on with electrical output.

I snap my finger fast in mid air as the sound effect clicks as the device turns on as the projector shoots an image of this animated 3-d imagery.

I begin to type in a new code producing this beautiful image made to imitate one of that Tony Stark I flick the image making sure it I not a shocker.

Tapping my finger onto my watch the screen blows up in a while with the colorful beauty projection of this super gorgeous image of a fine man.

The pointer remove device presses play on a device roaring load in a colorful sea of ole blue and the circumference of the area and all things are now bold.

The printer projector takes action beginning to build in his room creating a new man in my life and turning him in to a real man for the first time ever.

In awe of my astonishing play on how things work the machine prints a picture of him in a painting like quality if I say so myself the work is brilliant.

Followed by a birth certificate in white paper branded with gold letters I fill out the last few parts I am his only creator and his name as well.

His name is Lorenzo a creation of my own genius the one who made him by pure accident but brought him to life as he should be.

The ink shape shifting to print in gold the deed is done a shine of ring is added my own take obviously because governments are shit.

The projector gets to action with laser focus he brings to print the final touches pounding away the image now on to a physical form instead of paper.

The wonder now stands a few feet above me he land onto the ground from flight he

is a magnificent to view from h point of view the only one that matters.

“This will be the most amazing experience ever.”

“The schematics are active”

“Such beautiful Kaleidoscope of colors”

“The Blue prints are obvious”

“The skeleton is built”

“The meat is being formulated “

“Such a Godly sight”

“Radiating everywhere “

“My dear”

“Oh My Stars”

“You are heaven”

“Who are you ?”

“Right! I am your creator”

“Wait! How? What?”

“Relax…you feel good”

“Sorry! I am confused “

“It’s my fault the human filter is not ready yet”

“I can rationalize my behavior now typical human one sorry!”

“Thank you Daddy!”

“Supremely perfect “

The end

[forneversimmer]

The Simblr Office welcomes student intern Megan Richardson to the team! Learn more about her for the @kashisun Simblr Office challenge below ~

Quick Facts:

- 19 years old, She/Her

- Sophomore at Britechester University, majoring in Pre-Law

- Interning in the legal department where she does data entry and picks up unnecessarily complicated Starbucks orders

- Only applied for an internship because her academic rival wanted the position (take THAT Oliver) and to impress the professor she wants future law school recommendation letters from

- Thought about quitting 30 minutes into her first shift

- Lied on her resume about knowing how to use Excel and is currently regretting it

- Always gets lunch at Panera and orders the same soup every single time

- Eavesdrops on every conversation

- Wants to be a networking social climber but forgot she needs the social skills to do that. She's working on it though

- Picks the blueberries out of the free blueberry muffins offered in the mornings

- Showed up to her first week on the job in a full pantsuit before she realized how laidback the dresscode is

- Shops exclusively at Target, even when it's not practical

- Is living off of her financial aid refund check that she keeps forgetting she needs to pay back eventually

- Is stealing all the printer paper, ink cartridges, and staplers out of the storage closet. It's an unpaid internship after all. Her motto?

[unbearable-lightness-of-ink]

i NEED to organise my craft room into something usable and I'm overwhelmed and the internet keeps offering me storage ideas that will become impossible to maintain the moment I take a single item out, or that involve mounting like seven hundred mason jars to my walls or hanging shit from the ceiling. help me out and tell me your best storage tips?

stuff I need to find a spot for includes

-bookbinding supplies (paper up to 12"x18", multiple rolls of bookcloth, endpaper, and mull, awls and threads and glues and bookboards, small book press, etc)

-general craft supplies (different types of glues, tapes, long straight edges, cut mats, right angle guides, paints, easel, brushes, inks, pencils, printer, paper cutter)

-sewing stuff (fabric, poly fill, scraps, threads, needles, pins, scissors, sewing machine, iron/ironing board, tape measures, patterns, dressmaker form, etc)

-fiber craft stuff (fiber, yarn, spinning wheels, drop spindles, knitting needles, crochet hooks, stitch markers, embroidery hoops and threads, bobbin lace bobbins and pillows and pins and threads, half finished cardigans...)

-random shop-type items like wood clamps, a mallet, wood stain, paintbrushes, etc.

and idk even what else. help.

[themissingnumbers]

> Inspect storage

You poke around, but there doesn't really seem like much of interest here. Some stationary supplies, spare labcoats in a couple different sizes, spare paper, printer ink and a bucket of sand. You can't open the trunk- the clasps are a bit too complicated for the drones wings to do anything but fumble with.

BEGINNING | EXPLORATION || PREV | NEXT

[strikedenko]

Cameron and the World Machine

A short story of a brief exchange between a simulation and its operator.

One of the multiple USB ports on Cameron's tall server stack began to glow, lined with a distinct yellow telling of the cat's return from a dataverse.

The light then projected an outline of a scarved Zeraora in a free space near the machine. Following a few seconds of silence, the feline began to materialize in the given location.

The process was not dissimilar to a printer laying ink onto a piece of paper or a multicellular organism being teleported right to its destination.

...Really, it was entirely like the latter, just with digital storage rather than a collection of biocells.

Blinking away the disorienting haze he'd, by that point, gotten used to, Cameron proceeds to his laptop, which automatically opens to his OneShot application.

Well, it was less of an application and more of a budget visualization of the world he'd just left. Yes, Cameron had taken the time to reserve a section of his server for the World Machine.

Others were, understandably, confused by such a decision, though both the machine and the user agreed that it was nothing but a win-win-win; The World Machine could perpetually run without fear of harming Cameron's device, Cameron could utilize his power to enter and help out whenever necessary, and they could maintain a close work relationship around the house.

The system wasn't... perfect, a particularly traumatizing September 4th would have something to say about it, but it worked well enough 99% of the time. For someone like Cameron, it might as well be perfect.

"[Data corruption is at an all-time low, thanks to your patches.]"

Even with the Machine realizing its tamed nature so long ago, maintenance was an inevitable must when keeping a system running. Bugs had to be squashed, sidewalks restored; Not much, but it's honest work.

"That's great, I'm glad to have helped!"

"[I'm very appreciative. Oh, by the way, you got a text from..."]

The World Machine then proceeded to read out the full IPv4 address belonging to Jake and Reikka's own network of devices. Annoying, and he had to be careful who was around, though neither of them could really do anything about it.

"Got it, thanks."

Cameron pulled out his modified tablet-like phone and read their message.

📲'Wanna hop on later?'

Ah, a virtual date! It wasn't often that they were able to meet physically, so most of the time they opted to make do with traversing interesting worlds in the Multiverse Machine. Significantly more interesting than dinner dates, and they could stretch their limits without risking any genuine harm, just having to ask an overseer to reset that server.

📱'Of course!'

📲'Pog'

📱':3'

With his evening plans made, he closes the World's window on his laptop and gets back to work.

[escharis]

Wip Wednesday but it’s a day late cause I tried this very interesting concept of sleep. Not sure if it works out yet.

Also upcoming work as well (it’s untitled so far)

Stiles got a list.

The paper with its messy scrawl in black ink is mocking him from where it rests crumbled in his hand. The paper had been pristine white when he had first written on it, but now a few weeks later it had already darkened with use. It had been neat when he had taken it from the paper storage of the printer and stiff from the starch used in making it. It had become soft now with deep creases from all the times he had folded it open and closed. He glared at it, but the names remained the same. He felt tears pricking at the corners of his eyes, his jaw clenched tight.

Stiles got a list with names of people who are going to die.

It’s not a list he came by with supernatural means. No crystal glasses and dubious oracles, no future sight or the echo of a death scream predating the last breath of its owner. No, he came by the list by very normal means. A lot of research and some more or less legal means and some absolutely illegal ones. Not that he cares much about that at this point, after all, it was particularly important that he had acquired the said list of names.

Stiles got a list with names of people who are going to die because he is going to kill them.

Can I tag you back for next week? @renmackree

Also I really need to learn and then remember the tumblr names of the rest.

[littlecarnet]

Talk about a blast from the past...

I remember begging my parents for this, despite my mom saying the camera was absolute crap and wasn't worth buying the printer for it. And...yeaaah, the results were a bit lackluster, but man was it fun to take photos and print them out without having to buy expensive ink. If you don't know, the GB Printer is a thermal printer, it only needs receipt paper. I was curious if it still worked so I dropped into my local store to get receipt paper and popped in some my GB games to test it out.

It still works! Even better than I remember because receipt paper is higher quality now. I know eventually these will fade over time, but it's nice to have mini Pokedex diplomas on my desk, and to use the stationery feature to print out notes to myself, the one above is a note to self for Pokemon Scarlet.

There's a lot more features on the GB Camera that I haven't tested out yet, such as frames. I have both the Japanese and English version, as well as region exclusive Hello Kitty that I picked up in Okinawa years back. I love the frames and stickers, they remind me of those Purikura machines from the 90s. It also has printables with coloring pages, stationery, dot to dot, as well as a class schedule sheet. I do know they made a Mario one as well but I can't find it online.

I also found a set of crayons from the early 90s, they're water-soluble and were part of a print making kit from Crayola. Weirdly enough I can't find them online, even contacted Crayola with photos, but apparently they can't track those down. My bro says it's probably due to moving dimensions, and yeah, sometimes it really is like that. I lost a lot of stuff in a storage center once, I was sad I lost my mp3 player in the shuffle. It had games, radio, notepad, and camera. Thankfully phones are all that and more, though I'd like a phone with a proper pen on it. Maybe for my birthday? XD

[inkintheinternet]

The Science of Lab on a Chip

By Arjuwan Lakkdawala

Ink in the Internet

Science nowadays looks so much like the Jetsons cartoon, where lots of technology would be folded into a little chip or box. The technological leaps have been phenomenal, and what makes this more fascinating in this era, than past breakthrough discoveries, is that the Internet has given us a front row seat of the entire show as it unfolds.

That is not all, we are so connected that it's possible to contribute progressive ideas to science or any project or situation. There is always someone reading and posts go viral faster than we can say cheese.

While this attribute of the Internet makes it very entertaining. There is a serious aspect to the science itself. The aspect of saving lives. The scientists of the world are heroes, innovating not only to progress science but also to invent impactful devices and medication methods in developing countries, we in the privileged first world countries may not think often about the suffering of third world countries. But the elites in academia have made them a priority. Still, despite these efforts there are several issues in getting the proper aid to those countries.

In African regions there is the problem of counterfeit medicines that cause annually thousands of deaths. So a messaging system to scan the barcodes on the medication that could be sent to a website for verification was developed.

Another crisis in developing countries is that women often die during childbirth from blood loss. Due to lack of available medical equipment and blood donors, the same blood lost would be transfused back into the patient using kitchen things and guize to filter the blood  - which done in this way is unhygienic and dangerous. For this the Sisu Global Health developed the Hemafuse for hygienic and steril blood transfusion.

Other inventions like 3D printers are also of significant impact in developing countries. Some examples for instance include; printing prosthetics, setting up field hospitals, or printing a lab-in-a-box.

In this regard is one very interesting invention, which is the lab-on-a-chip. It may sound impossible for a whole lab to be on a chip that can be anywhere from the size of your fingernail to a few inches. This product hasn't been industrialised but it is being used in several medical settings, and constant improved models are in the works.

As technology advances devices are getting miniature and miniature. This is to make it conveniently possible to pack more technology in smaller spaces. But other benefits as scientists emphasis is that it reduces human error. This is more crucial in the medical field than anywhere else.

So how are devices getting so miniature that we can have a lab-on-a-chip?

How did they do it. How does it work. I researched these questions and the answer is complex science, but I will give a detailed overview.

Let's start with the science of chips (not the eating ones) a computer chip is the brain of every type of artificial intelligence. Chips are made mostly from silicon (hence the name Silicon Valley.)

Silicon is made from sand and it's the most abundant natural resource on earth after oxygen.

As we know computers started very large and got smaller, now we have handheld devices that are so slick they are practically flat, and are packed with compute power and huge memory storage.

This is mainly the magic of microchips and transistors. As chips got smaller so did transistors, and they are what gives the chips their compute power. In a powerful optimized chip the size of your fingernail there could be 50 billion transistors.

Transistors have shrunk to the size of atoms.

(Basically the size of atoms, I did extensive research to understand this, and this is what I make of it. The "transistor" is simply layers of silicone, no wires, or hardware, then atoms with an electric charge (ions) are split into negative and positive charged ones known as cations (positive) and anions (negative) and these are fired into the silicone layers, changing their atomic composition, and hence creating an electrical circuit the size of atoms without wires. We know atoms are so small we cannot see them even with a microscope, and this is how devices are getting miniature and compute power is getting bigger. A single transistor circuit can hold two stages of the binary commands by which computer software is programmed. That is 1 and 0. So 50 billon transistors can hold a very large memory capacity and compute power. An electrical current by battery or a direct powerline activates the transistor configuration of postive and negative atoms, which are controlled by the three layers of each transistor.)

The next question is how is it possible for machines to engineer at such nano and microscales. This is the great secret behind such technological leaps - I like to give it a layman term 'light engineering,' and not so much a layman term 'chemical engineering.'

The silicone used in chips and the materials (polymers) used in lab-on-a-chip are modified chemically to be sensitive to different wavelengths of light and even waves of sound, and these techniques are used in a major part of such miniature engineering.

A chip starts basically as an ingot of silicone, then it is sliced into strips technically called 'wafers' this is coated with photo sensitive material, and then it is put in a lithography machine that has a blueprint known as the 'mask' that gets imprinted on it. This is repeated on layers of silicone; building an electrical circuit for the transistors. Then atoms of different charges are blasted in the electrical patterns made on the silicone. This process takes place in a clean room, dust is hazardous to it for it can damage the chips.

After a set of other modifications the chips are tested and ready to be used in devices. Depending on the tech used in the manufacturing, there could be a few billion to 50 billion transistors nearly the size of atoms in the chip.

The material widely used in lab-on-a-chip are polymers, and they are fabricated with the technology of microfluidics. This means that the lab-chips will have microchannels and chambers where test fluids will be pushed through or stored as the tests go on. Fluids at such microscales behave very differently than what we are used to in observations in large volumes. The science of microfluidics explores and takes advantage of the change in fluid dynamics of the microscale. The microchannels and chambers are etched on the chip using lithography - the same technology used in manufacturing microchips and transistors.

Those lab-chips could have high-tech analytical tools like spectrometers and gas chromography attached to them, and in built pressure systems to move the fluids.

There are also organs-on-a-chip, these mimic microenvironments and the effect on specific organ micro simulation, and are more precise than traditional culture tests. Lab-chips are said to be faster than normal conventional labs, cost much less, reduce human error, and being portable can be of significant impact were medical care is needed but a lab or hospital is not possible.

Lab-on-a-chip are used in blood tests, diagnostics of bacteria and viruses, DNA/RNA and HIV tests, and more applications are being developed.

Micro technology had a revolution in the medical field in the 70s, described as "scientists first had only a street light, where testing was not possible of more than a single gnome at a time, and then we had a floodlight."

This happened after scientific methods of studying atoms in physics was applied to molecular biology, and then chemical engineering branched out into biochemical and biomedical engineering. Scientists made technological breakthroughs and discovered that the human body worked like a very high-tech sophisticated biological machine, and it was possible to apply engineering methods to it - resulting in the science of biochemical engineering and systems biology, etc. Scientists started to look for ways to merge biology with mechanical engineering like prosthetics, artificial organs, and so on.

Arjuwan Lakkdawala is an author and independent researcher in science.

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Copyright ©️ Arjuwan Lakkdawala 2024

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