Chat with Greg Fridman

It's 2026 and industry still uses open flame for surface treatment of plastics. A viewer wrote in asking why — and specifically, what's the actual difference between corona (plasma) treatment and flame? The answer is more interesting than "one is better." Let me walk you through it. ⏱️ Chapters 00:00 It's 2026 and industry still uses fire 00:11 The viewer's question: what's the difference between...

A viewer asked a great follow-up to my recent beauty industry episode: what's the actual mechanism of plasma cosmetic treatments, and how is it different from microneedling or fractionated laser? Also — how does a "plasma cream" even work? Let me walk you through all three, plus a garbage-bag analogy for your skin that will make the rest make sense. ⏱️ Chapters 00:00 A follow-up question from a vi...

New sub-format! I asked Claude to analyze my channel and come up with gloriously dumb "Can Plasma?" questions. First category: Food & Kitchen. Five questions. My usual joke is that the answer to any plasma question is "10 out of 10 yes it can do something" — but this time, one of them actually stumped me. ⏱️ Chapters 00:00 The setup: I asked Claude for gloriously dumb Can Plasma questions 00:1...

A short break from plasma to chat about something that comes up in almost every research conversation I have lately: should scientists use AI? Here's my honest take after two decades in research — the concerns I think are overblown, the one I take seriously, the benefits that move my work 10×, and the app I asked Claude to build yesterday that's already running on my phone. ⏱️ Chapters 00:00 Today...

Next in the "Can Plasma?" series — a 4th of July special: can plasma do anything for fireworks? Yes, but with caveats. Three real applications, and a chemistry lesson about why the colors in the sky aren't from plasma. ⏱️ Chapters 00:00 Spirit of the season: can plasma do fireworks? 00:09 Quick intro — Greg Friedman, plasma bioengineer 00:25 The short answer: kind of, not directly 00:29 Applicatio...

Quick follow-up to my last "Can Plasma?" episode on the beauty industry: I forgot to talk about a whole industry segment — cosmetics manufacturing. I've actually done R&D work in that space, and there are four applications worth walking through, from the boring to the genuinely cool. ⏱️ Chapters 00:00 Confession: I forgot a whole industry last episode 00:19 Today's structure: boring → coolest...

Next in the "Can Plasma?" series: can plasma be used in the beauty industry? A dozen applications, some of them real, some of them total marketing bullshit on Amazon and at Sephora, plus a 60% placebo effect that's its own kind of medicine. And a pig story. ⏱️ Chapters 00:00 The question: can plasma be used in the beauty industry? 00:22 Quick intro — Greg Friedman, plasma bioengineer 00:36 Setting...

Next in the "Can Plasma?" series: can plasma make things smell better? Short answer: depends on what "better" means. Plasma is incredible at destroying smells. There are two reasons that's not always what you want. ⏱️ Chapters 00:00 The question — and why it's a trick question 00:04 Quick intro — Greg Friedman, plasma bioengineer 00:13 What "smell better" actually means 00:22 Plasma destroys volat...

Next in the "Can Plasma?" series: can plasma kill prions? The honest answer is yes at high doses — and at low doses, the result scared me off the topic. ⏱️ Chapters 00:00 The question: do you know how to kill prion disease? 00:13 Quick intro — Greg Friedman, plasma bioengineer 00:27 The question in full: "Dear Gregory…" 00:36 What prions actually are — misfolded, self-replicating proteins 00:46 Wh...

Next in the "Can Plasma?" series — a World Cup special: can plasma help soccer? Yes, in more places than you'd think — from the grass under the players' feet, to the ball, to the locker room, to the cuts on the players' knees. Most of these aren't practical today. All of them are possible. ⏱️ Chapters 00:00 World Cup special: can plasma help soccer? 00:27 Quick intro — Greg Friedman, plasma bioeng...

Next in the "Can Plasma?" series: can plasma treat milk? Yes — and the result is sterile, green, smells like crap, and probably curdled. But there's an interesting bioengineering challenge hidden underneath, and a chocolate bar story you'll want to hear. ⏱️ Chapters 00:00 The question: can plasma treat milk? 00:05 The short answer: yes, but it ruins the milk 00:11 The devils and the details — and...

Today's deviation from plasma (sort of): a meditation on the books that shape engineering visions. Elon Musk has been quietly telling the world what the future looks like — by recommending Ian Banks' Culture series. I bought all 10 audiobooks. I'm on book three. Let me tell you what I'm hearing — and the Asimov novel that built the mission of my own company. ⏱️ Chapters 00:00 I know the future. El...

Next in the "Can Plasma?" series: can plasma treat seeds? Short answer: yes — for disinfection, germination, and early plant growth. But where this matters most isn't where you might guess. ⏱️ Chapters 00:00 The question: can plasma treat seeds? 00:13 Quick intro — plasma like plasma TV, not blood plasma 00:39 What "treating seeds" actually means 00:45 Two goals: disinfection (eating) and germinat...

A viewer left a comment that I wanted to respond to properly. They mentioned learning programming and machine learning, the "overwhelming amount of knowledge" out there, and their decision not to let that discourage them. Great attitude — and I wanted to share one thing that took it further for me. ⏱️ Chapters 00:00 I can't 10X your life — but I can tell you what I did 00:30 The viewer comment tha...

A viewer asked me to review every type of plasma — and to do it like analyzing a sports car: engine, transmission, fuel, cooling, the whole spec sheet. I loved the analogy so much I built a full presentation around it. This one's now part of my undergrad and high school outreach materials. ⏱️ Chapters 00:00 Today's experiment: explaining plasma as sports cars 00:16 The viewer question that inspire...

Next in the "Can Plasma?" series: can plasma be scaled up? You built it in the lab, it works beautifully — now turn it into an industrial process. I wrote down 14 reasons that's harder than it sounds. ⏱️ Chapters 00:00 The question: can plasma be scaled up? 00:28 Why I wrote down 14 points for this one 00:36 #1 Preserving the plasma regime — from a 2mm jet to a whole strawberry 01:53 #2 Power supp...

Next in the "Can Plasma?" series: can plasma be used safely around people? Short answer: it depends on your definition of "safely," "used," and "people." Let me walk you through what that actually means. ⏱️ Chapters 00:00 The question: can plasma be used safely around people? 00:31 Why the question hinges on three definitions 00:41 The welding torch test: would you hand one to a 7-year-old? 01:16...

Next in the "Can Plasma?" series: can plasma make plastic stick better? Yes — and the more interesting question is whether it can make plastic stick WORSE. We cover both. ⏱️ Chapters 00:00 The question — and the better question (stick worse?) 00:30 Two kinds of plastic: thermosets vs thermoplastics 00:55 A quick word on recyclability 01:16 How plasma activates a surface: breaking bonds, adding cha...

Next up in the "Can Plasma?" series: can plasma remove CO₂? Short answer: no — but the longer answer is way more interesting. Plasma can take CO₂ and turn it into things people actually want to buy. In this episode I cover: Why "removing" CO₂ is the wrong framing — valorizing it is the real opportunity Making syngas: reacting CO₂ with methane to produce CO + H₂, a building block of the chemical in...

Can non-equilibrium plasma help coagulate blood in people with hemophilia? That is a much harder question than it first appears. Plasma can dry blood, cross-link biological material, and under some conditions thermally coagulate tissue. But hemophilia is not simply “blood that will not dry.” It involves missing or deficient clotting factors, which means the normal biochemical clotting cascade may...

Can plasma be added to hospital laundry systems to make sheets, gowns, towels, and clothing not just clean — but potentially sterile? In this video, I answer a viewer’s question about what plasma laundry might look like in a hospital environment. My basic idea is simple: add a plasma treatment step into the dryer cycle, right before drying. Plasma would not remove dirt or stains — that is still th...

Can plasma coagulate blood? Yes — but the real answer depends on the kind of plasma, the kind of bleeding, and the medical situation. In this video, I talk about how plasma can be used to help control bleeding, from established thermal plasma tools used in electrosurgery to newer approaches involving sparks, dielectric barrier discharges, and plasma jets. We also get into why blood coagulation is...

Can plasma surface treatment help with metal 3D printing? In this video, I respond to a viewer question about whether plasma could be used as a DIY surface treatment method for metal additive manufacturing. We talk about metal powder bed fusion, wire-based metal printing, oxide layers, powder cleaning, plasma charging effects, hydrogen plasma, nitrogen/hydrogen mixtures, and whether plasma could r...

Can plasma treat cancer? The short answer is: maybe, but not yet as a standard medical treatment. Plasma oncology is a real and promising research field, but it is still mostly in the preclinical and early clinical research stage. In this video, I talk about how plasma could be used in cancer treatment, including direct plasma treatment of tumors, plasma-treated liquids, immune system activation,...

Can you rotate or control a pulsed plasma using a magnetic field? And what happens if the pulse is only about 100 nanoseconds long? In this video, I respond to a viewer question about gliding arcs, pulsed plasmas, magnetic fields, and whether it is possible to control ignition, reignition, and arc motion on very short timescales. I walk through the basic sequence of atmospheric-pressure discharge...