3D printers work by slowly layering a substance, usually a polymer, until the object is created. You can actually buy an open-source 3D printer from Makerbot for a bit over a thousand bucks.
Some people use 3D printers to create interesting food items.
Lately, we have been experimenting with live cells. Need a new heart? Simply print one up from cells cultured from your own body.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/20/scientists-create-n...
I can think of some body parts that people here might want printed and installed.
The good news? This technology is a whole lot closer to deployment than nanobots and the like.
Comments
I've actually been looking
I've actually been looking into finding a job that deals with 3D printers. I have been hearing a lot of buzz about them and they seem like they might be the next up and coming technology.
here are a few more break throughs with 3D printers (found on Wikipedia's in science pages)
16 September - Artificial blood vessels made on a 3D printer may soon be used for transplants of lab-created organs.
4 February – Dutch doctors successfully fit an 83-year-old woman with an artificial jaw made using a 3D printer. This operation, the first of its kind, could herald a new era of accurate, patient-tailored artificial transplants.
24 February – British-Italian researchers demonstrate a giant 3D printer capable of constructing a full-sized house in a single 24-hour session. The machine, which uses sand and a chemical binder as its working material, prints structures from the ground up, including stairs, partition walls and even piping cavities.
12 March - Researchers at the Vienna University of Technology develop a 3D printer that can print at the nano-scale and is orders of magnitude faster than previous devices.
The printing of 3D tissue has taken a major step forward with the creation of a novel hybrid printer that simplifies the process of creating implantable cartilage.
American engineers build a 3D printer capable of manufacturing tools from lunar regolith, potentially allowing future astronauts to manufacture equipment on-site using lunar or Martian rock
In a series of separate developments, American and Japanese engineers create 3D printers that can produce edible meals with a range of flavours and textures on demand. These could both replace conventional ready meals and allow astronauts to enjoy a far more varied diet.
Funny thing is... most efficient and fast ...
... 3d printer is... a living cell. Especially if supplied with 3d model by virus. :-)
Even more funny is that I found recently in local legislation provisions for homes grown, printed, conjured by magic :-)
I have no idea how to translate it correctly into english... but it was done by adding one word to the law :-)
Main problem: first they want cow body parts.
To supply low cost (but expensive) cutlets to the people :-)
Even bigger problem: copyright restrictions will make it prohibitively expensive.
BTW, do you know that you are illegal copy of a human? Your parents have not purchased right to duplicate themselves, you have no holographic sticker with serial number and part number... So we can expect copyright owner to appear at any moment with requirement to destroy all of the illegal copies immediately :-)
Damn Peer-to-Peer material
Damn Peer-to-Peer material swapping. :P
Hopefully RIAA will not get us...
..with it's crazy fine for illegal copy :-)
Well just go to spain...
Well just go to spain... Although I wonder if they'll let you back to America. Copyrights are more important than life after all.
Copyright owner?
I suppose for the religious that would be God, and the religious have been threatening that for years. For the rest of us, we would qualify as "uniques"* so no prior copyright would have been possible, nor could one be granted to anyone else now.
*From a series of old Si-Fi stories by George O. Smith.
"Life is not measured by the breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.”
George Carlin
OK. No problem. Just show me barcode.
And user manual supplied with legal copies. :-)
I wish
No user manual supplied. Can you imagine a user manual for each unique individual on this earth? What, 625 billion people?
"Life is not measured by the breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.”
George Carlin
Unnecessary
Even with no manuals available, most people seem to have little trouble when it comes to using each other. :P
In regard of "unique"
If you are unique it should be impossible to trace your DNA to any of your parents, grandparents, or siblings.
Not at all
Unique means that this particular combination of genes has never occurred before and never will again. Just like snowflakes, no two human beings are exactly alike. Even in twins, it is possible to have variances buried way down in the DNA. Sometimes the differences in identical twins can even be seen, my nieces are a case in point. Though they are identical twins, there is a difference in their hair growth patterns. One has a single crown, the other a double crown. There is still a lot of unknown territory in understanding DNA. Scientists can map it, yet have no clue in the world what a lot of it actually does to make us who we are.
That's what makes us all special, we are all Unique, one of a kind, a random combination of DNA never to be duplicated again.
"Life is not measured by the breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.”
George Carlin
Ignore the copyrighted stuff...
Use open source!
We already have many multiple branches of Linux that branch off to more branches. I run Linux Mint, which is based on Ubuntu, which is based on Debian. The tree literally has dozens of side branches. If I want, and have the patience, I can take little pieces of this distro and that distro, maybe modify some of the programs or write some from scratch, and make my own creation that works exactly the way I want it to work. It is only limited by my imagination, the available pieces-parts, and the amount of time I want to spend on the project.
So, when it's time to print my new replacement body, I'll be scouring the open source repositories. I'll want hands with plenty of strength and dexterity, guts that work well and aren't bothered by junk food, and legs that will carry the rest of me around without tiring. If I get really adventurous, maybe some wings would be nice. Do I want blue, green, or violet eyes? And why should I have to stick with the current three color version? With a little genetic engineering to modify some of my retina cells, I can be a pentachromat or hexachromat. Just changing the genes that code for the pigments in the cone cells will allow me to see ultraviolet, infrared, and lots of colors in between.
The furries would have a heyday, too. Anyone want a tail, kitty ears, and long silky fur?
A tail might be fun... not a
A tail might be fun... not a big fan of the whole furry thing though. How about an extra pair of arms? Or get yourself lower arms instead of legs? I mean for astronauts or something. I'd certainly try some gender bendering. The problem with the freeware would be to make sure it's actually safe. You wouldn't want a hand with a blockade or something. Once this is out I can only hope the nations will be fast enough to regulate copyright on stuff like that. The idea of patented hearts...
That would be an awesome technolog, but could go horribly wrong.
Open source vs. freeware
Freeware is often closed source. That is, even though it costs you nothing, you have no idea what might be hidden inside. In the software world, you often find games that contain spyware or whatever.
Open Source means that you have all the engineering documentation. You have the entire design. There are no hidden parts. In the software world, while you might not have the patience or expertise to go through Firefox and make sure that it is free of dirty tricks, you can bet that enough people have poked through enough of the code that the chances of anything nasty slipping through is minimal.
In the case of printed bodies or body parts, you will either want to study it thoroughly yourself, talk to those who have studied it, or use designs that have been tried and successfully used by lots of people. Innovating with a hand or a tail or fully functional hermaphrodite parts might be relatively safe, since you can always replace the parts again if there is trouble. Something like a heart, however, needs to work right the first time.
You don't need to own a 3D printer
There are several companies now who will print your design in a number of different materials and post them to you.
I have been toying (and that's all at this stage) with the idea that I could design a mould for a mask based upon the ideas I use in my Big Busts stories - ie the mask fits your face on the inside and produces a slightly different shape on the outside. At the moment, I'm only thinking of a part mask covering the cheeks and nose, but you could make substantial changes in this way. Problem is it's going to take a lot of design time, and I'm not that practical for the moulding bits.
It will probably remain a pie in the sky.
They did it ten years ago.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RMx31GnNXY
I've seen more recently!
But they are still saying it 10 - 20 years off for the same sex transplant and more like 30 years for the Transgender patients. I hope that it is way less. But I actually think there will be an age bracket.
Wil
Aine