“Will we one day be able to print anything and everything we need? 3D printers have been used in architectural schools for quite some time already (and self-replicating home models are becoming more and more common), a 3D food printer is under development, and now several sources are working on 3D bio-printers: machines that will “print” organs so patients will no longer have to wait for transplant donations. Recently, the first commercial organ printer was built by biomedical company Invetech and delivered to Organovo, a company that has pioneered the bioprinting technology.
The printer is already capable of producing arteries, which doctors will be able to use in bypass surgeries in as little as five years. Other, more complex body parts should be possible within ten years: bones and hearts, for example. The printer works by using two print heads. One lays down a scaffold and the other places human cells into the shape of whatever organ is being formed. There’s little threat of the new organ being rejected since it’s made of the patient’s own cells.”
Read more at Gajitz
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Yayh´…thas good news
‘self-replicating home models are becoming more and more common’. So that’s a printer that can print another printer? Er…no. Not yet, at least. Duff wording.
Ok, life is officially getting more and more like an episode of star trek now…
I smell some cheesy bollocks here.
Problems with paper feed could get messy.
fascinating…but so is this other article on that site:
http://gajitz.com/scientific-scans-show-natural-art-inside-of-human-bodies/
I’m uncomfortable with mention of cheesy bollocks in a post about a 3D organ printer, especially when said post also makes reference to a 3D food printer. Conjures an image of an equally terrifying yet utterly hilarious draft script for “The Fly”.
Such optimism. It’s never too bad to stay a bit on the safer and true side in this articles.
I myself would not call it printers. A name is more important than people wish to think. It sets readers of to the wrong image of the whole system
@Simon Williams
>’self-replicating home models are becoming more and more common’. So that’s a printer that can print another printer? Er…no. Not yet, at least. Duff wording.
It\’s true (ish)
The reprap (reprap.org) is currently capable of \’printing\’ about 50% of its own parts, that figure soon to increase.
10 years for a single organ, pah! What I want to know is how long before I can “print” my own Monica Bellucci?
Well that’s the Invetech office party sorted then, kind of makes the photocopier look redundant!
I wonder how much ink for that would cost in Tesco.
Mhmm….
Now that is what I call an amazing printer. New technologies like this seem like the stuff science fiction models are made from. Altthough I don’t think I would like to eat anything from the food printer!