Nanoscribe’s Bioinspiration

Nanoscribe’s customers are leveraging the company’s powerful 3D printer to duplicate features found previously only in nature. 

3D Bioprinted Rhino Horns: Good or Evil?

A report on New Scientist describes how one company is bioprinting rhinoceros horns to save the troubled beast from extinction. Or are they?  Rhino horns are a highly desired product in some regions, as ground-up horn is considered a powerful aphrodisiac. Demand for rhino horn material has generated a culture of poachers in rhino-populated areas,… Continue reading 3D Bioprinted Rhino Horns: Good or Evil?

Shark Material Produced by 3D Printing

Shark skin is quite rough yet allows rapid swimming, for those of you who haven’t been up close with the notorious fish, but now the nature of the skin has been duplicated with 3D printing. 

3D Printed Coral Reefs

Forbes published more information on the 3D printed reef produced by concrete 3D printer D-Shape, whom we met with earlier this year.    Why 3D print a reef when you can simply drop concrete blocks or sink redundant ships at the correct locations? The answer lies in the shape of the reef.    Evidently artificial… Continue reading 3D Printed Coral Reefs

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3D Printing a Living Object: Furniture

Designer Eric Klarenbeek has used 3D printing in a revolutionary way we’ve not seen before: printing a living piece of furniture.    The Dutch designer 3D printed a chair (with an amazing design) from straw material (not seen before) and added living fungus (also not seen before).    The “Mycelium Chair” includes a very thin… Continue reading 3D Printing a Living Object: Furniture

GIANT 3D PRINTED BUGS!

The Australian National Insect Collection could be a creepy place if you’re adverse to meeting bugs. But now it’s enormously MORE creepy because they’ve used advanced technology to create GIANT 3D PRINTED BUGS!   They’ve carefully 3D scanned specimens of several species and reproduced them up to forty times life size. Yes, FORTY. And they’re… Continue reading GIANT 3D PRINTED BUGS!

Human Faces 3D Printed From Stray DNA

In another truly science fiction moment, PhD student Heather Dewey-Hagborg has developed a technique for transforming found DNA into a 3D model of the DNA owner’s face. This, of course, can be 3D printed.    Studying Information art at Troy, NY’s Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Dewey-Hagborg has been involved in a wide variety of similarly unusual… Continue reading Human Faces 3D Printed From Stray DNA

3D Printed Fish Tags

Perhaps you might not need tags for your fish, but the folks at Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) do. They’ve developed a way to 3D print titanium tags for tracking larger fish including Marlin and Tuna.    Titanium was chosen as it does not react to salty ocean water and can withstand… Continue reading 3D Printed Fish Tags

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Controlling Microorganisms to Fabricate Products

Designers and scientists in California are exploring the idea of using microorganisms to create consumer products. This can be thought of as a natural way of 3D printing. E. coli bacteria are being studied to ‘re-program’ them and build the product. This idea has tons of potential and in my opinion should have been looked into much… Continue reading Controlling Microorganisms to Fabricate Products

3D Printed Fish Breeding Gear

We’ve seen many applications of 3D printing to a wide variety of situations, but this one is pretty interesting: Indiana-based research scientist Shane Graber has been using his MakerBot to produce a variety of specialized items for his salt-water fish breeding experiments.    He’s designed an incredibly simple brine hatchery composed of a base that’s… Continue reading 3D Printed Fish Breeding Gear

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3D Printed Dino Robots

We know folks have 3D printed dinosaur bones before. What could possibly be better than that? We know one thing: 3D Printed Dinosaur Robots!    The project to produce these entertaining items has in fact a very serious scholarly purpose. Researchers at Drexel University are 3D printing scaled down dino bones and attaching artificial muscles… Continue reading 3D Printed Dino Robots

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Capture That Dinosaur!

Or at least capture their footprints. Most dinosaur species are now extinct, save for those that fly, but the large extinct versions occasionally left behind amazing fossil footprints. We’ve been reading a report of how palaeontologists have been using 3D scanning techniques to capture detailed 3D models of these fossilized prints for later analysis. According… Continue reading Capture That Dinosaur!

Microscopic 3D Models

We’re always looking for new sources of 3D models to print, and we found another potential source: microscopic imaging. Scientists at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Janelia Farm Research Campus are using a special microscopic high-speed imaging (e.g. video) system to capture moving images of teeny things in action, like a single cell dividing, for… Continue reading Microscopic 3D Models

Printing Carcasses

Continuing with the biology-meets-3d-printers theme today, we’ve run across a dark hobby: printing 3D models of animal carcasses! Designer Harry Allen has scanned and modelled a dead firefly, and then implanted an LED to create an unusual lighting system.   He’s also scanned a deceased piglet to create an actual “piggy bank”. Perusing his portfolio… Continue reading Printing Carcasses