3-D Printed Hand Lets Haitian Boy Play Catch for First Time

NBC News.com

A 12-year-old boy born without fingers has become Haiti's first recipient of a 3-D printed prosthesis, enabling him to play catch with his friends for the first time.

Stevenson Joseph, who has lived at an orphanage since he was abandoned at the age of 3, had little hope of treatment in a country where programs for the disabled are rare.

But after he met John Marshall, a software engineer on a mission trip to Haiti for Florida-based Food for the Poor, his prospects changed. After months of work to perfect the design, a 3-D prosthesis was fitted to his left hand last month.

"It is a great hand," Stevenson says, ticking off his list of accomplishments. "Now I can take a balloon with it. I can score at basketball. I can hold a TV remote and push my friends on their wheelchairs. I can hold a water bottle, a bag. I like it a lot."

 

 MARIE ARAGO / Reuters

Stevenson Joseph practices opening a door using his 3-D printed prosthetic hand at the orphanage where he lives in Santo, Haiti, on April 28, 2014.

Introducing the Desktop 3D Printer

www.breitbart

By Warner Todd Huston

The 3D printing revolution could be coming to your home with a new machine that costs less than an iPhone and can sit on your desktop.

MD3 is a company trying to produce an affordable 3D printing device and has set up a Kickstarter page in hopes that it can raise enough money to bring The Micro 3D printing machine to customers' homes.

The novelty machine is intended for beginners in 3D printing and can only "print" items that stand a few inches tall, but MD3 hopes that the affordable printer can bring the concept of 3D printing to the average consumer in order to get more people interested in the concept of home manufacturing.

Micro 3D weighs 2.2 lbs and prints objects up 4.6-inches tall, the company says.

The machine will be able to print in plastics and will be able to make toys, key chains, jewelry, and can even print with food stuffs such as chocolate.

MD3 says that their printer is plug and play and easy to use with open source software.

"At M3D we knew at some point in the future these tools would be a part of everyone’s lives, so we asked why not now?" said the company's founder Michael Armani.

"In order for [3D printers] to live up their potential, they need to be affordable and completely effortless to use," Armani said.

The Kickstarter campaign is scheduled to end on May 7 and has already raised $250,000.

The next frontier in 3-D printing: Human organs

CNN.com

By Brandon Griggs

The emerging process of 3-D printing, which uses computer-created digital models to create real-world objects, has produced everything from toys to jewelry to food.

Soon, however, 3-D printers may be spitting out something far more complex, and controversial: human organs.

For years now, medical researchers have been reproducing human cells in laboratories by hand to create blood vessels, urine tubes, skin tissue and other living body parts. But engineering full organs, with their complicated cell structures, is much more difficult.

Enter 3-D printers, which because of their precise process can reproduce the vascular systems required to make organs viable. Scientists are already using the machines to print tiny strips of organ tissue. And while printing whole human organs for surgical transplants is still years away, the technology is rapidly developing.

"The mechanical process isn't all that complicated. The tricky part is the materials, which are biological in nature," said Mike Titsch, editor-in-chief of 3D Printer World, which covers the industry. "It isn't like 3-D printing plastic or metal. Plastic doesn't die if you leave it sitting on an open-air shelf at room temperature for too long."

Lawrence Bonassar, a professor of biomedical engineering at Cornell University, with an artificial ear made via 3-D printing and injectable molds.

The idea of printing a human kidney or liver in a lab may seem incomprehensible, even creepy. But to many scientists in the field, bioprinting holds great promise. Authentic printed organs could be used for drug or vaccine testing, freeing researchers from less accurate methods such as tests on animals or on synthetic models.

Then there's the hope that 3-D printers could someday produce much-needed organs for transplants. Americans are living longer, and as we get deeper into old age our organs are failing more. Some 18 people die in the United States each day waiting in vain for transplants because of a shortage of donated organs -- a problem that Anthony Atala, director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine and a pioneer in bioprinting, calls "a major health crisis."

An 'exciting new area of medicine'

Bioprinting works like this: Scientists harvest human cells from biopsies or stem cells, then allow them to multiply in a petri dish. The resulting mixture, a sort of biological ink, is fed into a 3-D printer, which is programmed to arrange different cell types, along with other materials, into a precise three-dimensional shape. Doctors hope that when placed in the body, these 3-D-printed cells will integrate with existing tissues.

The process already is seeing some success. Last year a 2-year-old girl in Illinois, born without a trachea, received a windpipe built with her own stem cells. The U.S. government has funded a university-led "body on a chip" project that prints tissue samples that mimic the functions of the heart, liver, lungs and other organs. The samples are placed on a microchip and connected with a blood substitute to keep the cells alive, allowing doctors to test specific treatments and monitor their effectiveness.

"This is an exciting new area of medicine. It has the potential for being a very important breakthrough," said Dr. Jorge Rakela, a gastroenterologist at the Mayo Clinic in Phoenix and a member of the American Liver Foundation's medical advisory committee.

One of Organovo's engineers oversees the construction of a vascular tissue construct on a NovoGen MMX bioprinter.

"Three-D printing allows you to be closer to what is happening in real life, where you have multiple layers of cells," he said. With current 2-D models, "if you grow more than one or two layers, the cells at the bottom suffocate from lack of oxygen."

To accelerate the development of bioprinted organs, a Virginia foundation that supports regenerative medicine research announced in December it will award a $1 million prize for the first organization to print a fully functioning liver.

One early contender for the prize is Organovo, a California start-up that has been a leader in bioprinting human body parts for commercial purposes. Using cells from donated tissue or stem cells, Organovo is developing what it hopes will be authentic models of human organs, primarily livers, for drug testing.

The company has printed strips of human liver tissue in its labs, although they are still very small: four by four by one millimeter, or about one-fourth the size of a dime. Each strip takes about 45 minutes to print, and it takes another two days for the cells to grow and mature, said Organovo CEO Keith Murphy. The models can then survive for about 40 days.

Organovo has also built models of human kidneys, bone, cartilage, muscle, blood vessels and lung tissue, he said.

"Basically what it allows you to do is build tissue the way you assemble something with Legos," Murphy said. "So you can put the right cells in the right places. You can't just pour them into a mold."

Ethical concerns

Not everyone is comfortable with this bold new future of lab-built body parts, however.

A research director at Gartner Inc., the information-technology research and advisory firm, believes 3-D bioprinting is advancing so quickly that it will spark a major ethical debate by 2016.

A 3-D printer at Cornell University produces an artificial ear.

"Three-D bioprinting facilities with the ability to print human organs and tissue will advance far faster than general understanding and acceptance of the ramifications of this technology," Pete Basiliere said in a recent report.

"These initiatives are well-intentioned, but raise a number of questions that remain unanswered," Basiliere added. "What happens when complex 'enhanced' organs involving nonhuman cells are made? Who will control the ability to produce them? Who will ensure the quality of the resulting organs?"

Bioprinted organs are also likely to be expensive, which could put them out of reach of all but the wealthiest patients.

Murphy said Organovo only uses human cells in creating tissues, and doesn't see any ethical problems with what his company is doing.

"People used to worry about doing research on cadavers ... and that dissipated very quickly," he said. "We don't think there's any controversy if you're producing good data and helping people with health conditions."

Most experts, including Wake Forest's Atala, don't think we'll see complex 3-D-printed organs, suitable for transplants, for years if not decades. Instead, they believe the next step will be printing strips of tissue, or patches, that could be used to repair livers and other damaged organs.

Organovo's NovoGen MMX bioprinter is small enough to fit into a cabinet.

"We are very eager to put pieces of tissue to work for surgical transplants," said Organovo's Murphy, who hopes his company will be ready to begin clinical trials within five years.

Of course, any use of 3-D-printed tissue in surgical procedures would require approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. That review process could take up to a decade.

By then, the notion of a surgeon putting a 3-D-printed kidney into a patient may not seem so bizarre. Then again, this swiftly evolving technology may create new moral conundrums.

"The ethical questions are bound to be the same concerns we have seen in the past. Many major medical breakthroughs have suffered moral resistance, from organ transplants to stem cells," said Titsch of 3D Printer World.

"Will only the rich be able to afford it? Are we playing God? In the end, saving lives tends to trump all objections."

World's First 3-D Printed Bike Frame Weighs Just 3 Pounds

NBC News.com

By Devin Coldewey

Renishaw

 

It's a first: a bike frame created entirely via 3-D printing. Empire's prototype, on display at the London Bike Show, is solid (or rather hollow) titanium, and weighs just 1,400 grams — around 3 pounds.

Naturally, things like the tires, seat and chain can't be 3-D printed, but printing the entire frame is a big step. It's not printed out whole, though: The parts are made clustered together in a block by melting titanium dust with a laser, then bonded together.

Renishaw

The parts are printed together in a block, separated, then assembled and permanently bonded.

  Empire teamed up with additive manufacturing company Renishaw, and it took them about six months to produce the bike. Other companies have produced 3-D printed parts, but this is the first frame that's entirely made by this method.

Is it actually practical, though? It's just as strong as the Empire frame it's based on and quite a bit lighter, but the process doesn't exactly lend itself to mass manufacture.

So chances are if you buy a 3-D printed frame any time soon, it'll be a custom job and quite expensive. But a few years down the line, this may be both common and affordable.

House Extends Plastic Gun Ban Without Roll Call Vote

breitbart

By AWR Hawkins 4 Dec 2013

Using a procedure that prevents constituents from knowing which Republicans voted in favor of a ban on plastic guns, the House extended the Undetectable Firearms Act for another ten years Tuesday.

The original bill was passed in 1988—the height of the anti-Glock/plastic gun frenzy—and has twice been renewed since then. 

According to The Hill, the extension bill was sponsored by Rep. Howard Coble (R-NC), who claimed the bill had "overwhelming bipartisan support." 

Democrats were eager to support an extension of the ban. At the same time, they believe the ban needs to be updated "to take into account technology that allows plastic weapons and weapon parts to be produced on 3D printers."

Rep. Steve Israel (D-NY) says the law ought to require that "essential gun parts... include some metal component." 

Réplicas de órganos internos impresos en 3D para asistir a los cirujanos

microsiervos

3D Heart Models Help Save Children’s Lives,

Justin Ryan es un artista convertido en ingeniero biomédico que utiliza su habilidad para hacer un modelo tridimensional del corazón de un niño que necesita cirugía [...] el modelo es una réplica exacta del corazón de verdad del paciente según las imágenes obtenidas con tomógrafo y por resonancia magnética. Cada parte del modelo, los ventrículos, los vasos sanguíneos, se representa con colores para ayudar a los cirujanos a visualizar las estructuras del pequeño corazón [...] que pueden verse y tocarse antes incluso de que empiece la cirugía.

Pintando con metal en 3D

microsiervos

Como alternativa a la impresión en metal de objetos en 3D capa a capa, que ya está empezando a poner algunos procesos de producción patas arriba, General Electric está probando otro sistema que «pinta» con partículas metálicas, construyendo formas poco a poco.

Está pensado más bien para reparar piezas dañadas que para construir piezas totalmente nuevas, y el truco está en calentar el polvo metálico y el gas a una temperatura menor que la de fusión del metal de tal modo que lo que sale por la boquilla son partículas de metal maleables, pero no fundidas, que se adhieren a la pieza ya existente.

La ventaja principal respecto a la impresión capa a capa es que en principio esta técnica no tiene límites de tamaño salvo el que pueda imponer los movimientos de los que sea capaz el mecanismo de la boquilla.

GE está ya fabricando piezas metálicas mediante impresión en 3D como este inyector para motor LEAP

Hay más detalles en GE Researchers Experiment with 3D Painting to Build Up and Repair Parts.

(Vía Engadget).

World's First 3D Printed Metal .45 Cal Pistol Made In Austin, TX

Solid Concepts Inc.

breitbart

By AWR Hawkins 

On November 6th, Austin, Texas-based Solid Concepts announced the successful printing and firing of the world's first 3D-printed metal 1911 handgun.

The gun, printed by Solid Concepts, looks like any mil spec 1911 you could find in a local gun store. 

Every aspect of the gun is printed using Solid Concept's Direct Metal Laser Sintering (DMLS) process--except for the springs. During tests the gun repeatedly fired and cycled using standard Winchester .45 cal ammunition. Accuracy was impressive. 

After the successful tests, Solid Concepts' Phillip Conner said, "We were not looking for a cheaper, easier, better way to make a gun--that wasn't the point at all." Rather, he said they were trying to "dispel the commonly held notion" that their DMLS parts and guns "are not strong enough or accurate enough for real world applications."

Solid Concepts holds a federal firearms licence (FFL).

Victor Fowler a propósito de la reciente prohibición gubernamental de las salas 3D

Tomado de El Timbeke

6 noviembre, 2013 de NegraCubana

delpalenqueypara.blogspot.com

Por Victor Fowler Calzada
A la UNEAC
ICL
MINCULT
ICAIC
He leído con atención la nota oficial publicada en el periódico Granma el día 2 noviembre 2013 y en la cual se avisa de la decisión tomada por el Comité Ejecutivo del Consejo de Ministros en cuanto a prohibir, con efecto inmediato, toda actividad de las salas de proyección de películas en 3D operadas por propietarios privados, así como de los salones de juegos de computadoras. El presente mensaje breve que les envío tiene que como objeto el expresar –pese a que no tenga importancia alguna para algo que ya se decidió y aplicó- mi desacuedo con la medida, en particular todo lo que en ella propone -a propósito del consumo cultural – una suerte de oposición entre los conceptos calidad y banalidad dado las inquietantes consecuencias que ello tiene a nivel social.

Pienso que si bien cualquier Estado tiene el derecho y la obligación de regular y normar las actividades económicas que en el territorio que abarca son realizadas, ninguno lo tiene para decidir (y esto es de lo que principalmente trata el conflicto) cuál debe de ser el consumo cultural de sus nacionales. Al Estado le corresponde la obligación de facilitar una mejor educación y disfrute de la cultura realmente universales, durante la ejecución de sus proyectos esboza y presenta la meta de aquello que considera la virtud ciudadana respecto a la relación entre el individuo nacional y la cultura; pero como tal el Estado no es un maestro ni la sociedad un conjunto de estudiantes sentados en los pupitres de un aula permanente, sometido a exámenes periódicos de habilidad y temoroso de obtener bajas calificaciones o de una vez por todas suspender. Dicho de otro modo, el Estado es un enorme facilitador, no un juez severo (lo cual queda pasra el mundo sangriento de la guerra)..

Tan continuada insistencia en el tema de la banalidad, fantasma que en las más diversas intervenciones sobre cultura nacional aparece una y otra vez, hace pensar que en algún punto existe (o tendría que existir) algo así como el ser banal, especie de arquetipo negativo del consumidor cultural. En este punto, lo más difícil de entender (y aceptar) es que –coexistiendo con el consumo cultural de (o con) calidad- igual debe de existir espacio de existencia para el consumidor “banal”.
En este sentido, ser banal es una más entre las opciones de realización que una sociedad sana tiene para sus sujetos y los individuos poseen todo el derecho a consumir, sin la interferencia del Estado, los productos culturales del nivel jerárquico que así deseen, en especial los del nivel más bajo desde el punto de vista de la estética. Esto último resulta fundamental, ya que la efectividad de una democracia se prueba en la capacidad de acción (de realización, de vida) que de manera concreta existe para aquellos portadores del límite negativo del proyecto.

Más allá de esto, y acaso lo principal, es que el fantasma de la banalidad fabrica una figura de supuesta alienación y que, prácticamente, equivale a un nuevo enemigo social, puesto que se trata de alguien que insiste en mantenerse “externo” a la supuesta corriente sana de la calidad en el consumo; entonces, contrario a ello, no sólo es necesario defender el ser banal como un derecho humano, sino denunciar la falsedad de establecer equivalencias entre la calidad del consumo cultural de la persona y el altruismo, sentido solidario y valor de su aporte social.
Se pierde la brújula cuando –en lugar de orientar la discusión hacia la erosión de la solidaridad, los logros en el trabajo, la pérdida de amor o bondad en el trato entre las personas, el aumento del egoísmo, etc.- la energía se moviliza para extraer, de la “calidad” del consumo cultural, indicadores que alumbren la dinámica de los flujos sociales; como si la pregunta al reflejo pudiese sustituir el encuentro con el objeto.
Para mayor confusión, mientras que en una entrevista a Fernando Rojas, vice-ministro de Cultura (27/10/2013) este afirma que el Ministerio de Cultura estudia medidas que aplicar para que las salas 3D tributen a la política cultural de la Revolución, política cultural que Rojas señala que es una sola, en la nota oficial del Comité Ejecutivo del Consejo de Ministros (2/11/2013), apenas una semana más tarde, es ordenado el cierre inmediato de tales salas y nada deja entrever que vayan a ser reabiertas. Con esto, y por más que la nota insista en que la medida no constituye un retroceso en la nueva política económica del país, de forma implícita acaba de consagrar el principio de que ningún nuevo oficio tiene posibilidades de existir hasta tanto no sea imaginado y comprendido por las más altas autoridades político-económicas del país.
Vale la pena señalar que -a reserva de algún descubrimiento- las películas proyectadas en las salas de video 3D (he asistido a tres diferentes) son las mismas que en cualquier sala de video del circuito estatal o en la televisión. Realmente es difícil entender de qué se habla cuando de la intervención de Rojas se deriva que lo normal de estas salas de video 3D es promover “mucha frivolidad, mediocridad, seudo-cultura y banalidad, lo que se contrapone a una política que exige que lo que prime en el consumo cultural de los cubanos sea únicamente la calidad.”
Por desgracia, la ecuación entre frivolidad, mediocridad, seudo-cultura y banalidad en absoluto es clara en el presente en que vivimos y hace ya más de 20 años que un conocido teórico cultural llamaba la atención acerca de que, en modo alguno, un espectáculo de Madonna (trabajado a un altísimo nivel organizacional, profesional y tecnológico) podía ser considerado “baja cultura”; cuando un fenómeno como el Cirque de Soleil hace de ese viejísimo entretenimiento una nueva forma de arte; cuando la amplia gama que va de la computadora al teléfono digital cambia la comunicación, el entretenimiento e incluso las formas de producir y consumir arte; cuando el refinado arte de la ópera encuentra, gracias a la canción popular, nuevos públicos.
Todo ha cambiado, incluso las bases en las cuales encuentra su apoyo el diseño de las políticas culturales.
Las prohibiciones constituyen cierres que niegan todo camino al diálogo, tanto en el presente como en un futuro situado a distancia razonable (préstese atención a la fuerza que en la nota oficial cobra el adverbio ‘nunca’) y, al cortar esa posibilidad, de inmediato dirigen la intensidad del poder (la enormidad del aparato administrativo y discursivo que lo conforma) en contra de procesos, actitudes y cosas.
Lo sorprendente que presenciamos aquí es la deriva según la cual una política pública (en este caso la “política cultural”), de servicio, cobra autonomía y se constituye en un objetivo en sí misma, por encima de los cambios que hayan tenido lugar en la temporalidad; es por eso que, aunque débil e incompleta, alguna explicación es ofrecida en cuanto a la prohibición de las salas de video 3D, a la vez que practicamente nada es dicho acerca de la prohibición de los salones de juegos de computadora. En este punto queda la amarga sensación de que la retórica (vieja) ha sido incapaz de elaborar algún discurso coherente para enfrentar a la (nueva) realidad.

Al final, y esta es la parte más nociva de las prohibiciones, es que actúan como si lo único que existiese fuesen las normativas y el control de un lado, mientras que del otro el objeto o la práctica que eliminar; de tal modo, puesto que no se discute, queda privado de voz (sin que tampoco se le ofrezca respuesta alguna) lo que –a mi entender- es lo más importante: la alegría. Dicho de otro modo, el hecho de que la cantidad de alegría que a diario se manifestaba en los lugares ahora cerrados (salas de video 3D y salones de juegos de computadoras) proviene de miles de personas concretas que allí gozaban de su tiempo libre, mis hijos, mi esposa y yo entre ellas. A estos les ha sido negado algo que, muy rápidamente, aprendieron a considerar como parte del disfrute y a cambio reciben absolutamente nada.

Puesto que, junto con todo lo hasta aquí dicho, es loable exponer a la más severa crítica pública todo producto cultural que estimule el racismo, el machismo, el sexismo, la violencia, la prevalencia del dinero y sus formas de generar dominación por sobre la amistad, la solidaridad o el amor, pienso que, entre otros muchos temas, varios de los que motivan la presente intervención merecen ser discutidos en algunas de las Comisiones que realizarán su trabajo durante el venidero Congreso de la UNEAC. Por tal razón comparto preocupaciones y dudas con quienes, como ustedes, son mis colegas. Es algo que hago con la convicción de que debemos de discutir mucho, pero no con las pasiones de la agitación y propaganda, sino con la desgarrada profundidad de la ciencia.

Cuba: Cine 3D y pantalones chinos

El Comunicador Hispano

Por Andrés Pascual

Como hago de un tiempo a esta parte, les dejo tres links, necesarios para que no me quieran ahorcar por el título y el contenido de este material:

http://www.conexioncubana.net/index.php/andres-pascual/1820-eso-no-...

http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-852082

http://www.miscelaneasdecuba.net/web/Article/Index/51812aab3a682e0f...

¿Cómo es posible que la gente en Cuba sepa que la llamada “apertura económica” es sino una vitrina para dar una imagen de movimiento y le sigan el juego a esa canalla? O ¿No se han dado cuenta?

En 33 años, desde los Mercados Libres Campesinos, esto ha sido un juego a “te dejo que creas que te vas a enriquecer y después, como el pescador, recojo la nasa”; si te pasas de “la línea roja”, hasta con 20 años de prisión pudieras terminar.

Por lo menos cuatro veces han matriculado a los comemierdas en esa academia y siguen y siguen y siguen… como el conejo de la pila.

Una "federada" dijo: “tendremos que volver a la ilegalidad… cuando debió decir clandestinidad, pero el rechazo militante a palabras que sugieren "contrarrevolución es evidente”. Nápoles y el enviado del 41, como no tienen chispa ni son anticastristas, no le hicieron la pregunta que,  por lo delicado y necesario de que se aclare esa confesión, se imponía: Señora, ¿No tiene miedo a represalias, porque está ante las cámaras de la televisión de Miami, verdad que propiedad de Castro, pero, a ciertos efectos, peor? Dependiendo de la respuesta, la siguiente era obligatoria: ¿Cómo es posible que no tengan miedo para esto y justifiquen la inacción patriótica con ese sentimiento?

Otro “compañero engañado” dijo que se quedarían sin trabajo y  aquí hay que regresar a la pobre memoria retroactiva, que no tiene nada que ver con que no conozcan  quiénes son Bertha Dupuy o el Jiníguano, sino un discurso de Raúl que no ha cumplido 5 años todavía: “Camarada”, hay un número dicho por radio, televisión y el Granma: un millón y medio de “disponibles” y todavía no se cuentan 500,000 mil ¿Cómo es posible que pretenda hacer diana en el corazón de “los hombres buenos” con esa confusión gratuita? ¿Qué lamento es ese que no convirtió en exigencia enérgica en su momento? Usted y millón y medio son “revolucionarios interruptos”, ¿No lo recuerda?

¿Cómo es posible que ningún dueño de televisores plasmas utilizados como salas de cine, no protesten ante las oficinas del PCC y del Poder Popular como hicieron cuando Bush reguló los viajes y las remesas, lo mismo allá, apoyando lo dicho por sus victimarios, que aquí contra los congresistas que respaldaron la medida? ¿Dónde se meten ahora?

Hay una verdad rotunda en este argumento: la tiranía no quiere la participación de Miami, cuchitriles y bazares árabes con su propio dinero, porque el capitalito que se emplea para vender la ropa que envía un “potentado de comunidá y ajuste cubano” es de la tiranía, dueña de los videos, de las tiendas de mercancía china de a 12 dólares un pantalón sin  talla definida, de las casas-hidropónicos de mariguana, de las agencias de viajes, de las pandillas de fraude médico o de seguro, del anillo de entrada ilegal al país, de la exportación de putas y maricones por México o por mar… sencillamente, no están interesados en abrir negocios que procedan a mejorar muy mala y "caramente" ni el 1 % la oferta pública al consumidor, de lo contrario lo hubieran hecho ellos. Eso es pelota vieja, pero, como han oído hablar de “reformas al beisbol”, tal vez crean que…

La única inversión posible es la extranjera, de cientos de millones, no de quilos y eso lo dijo Bruno Rodríguez también: negocitos de decenas de miles, de 100,000-300,000 no nos interesan, hay que venir con 100 millones como mínimo, que en buen español quiere decir que las puertas están abiertas para Mas Santos, para Saladrigas, para los Estefan… y para los americanos de billetes... ¿Por qué creen que cabildean contra el embargo pública y privadamente? ¿Por humanismo? ¿Por patriotismo? ¡Por favor…!

El que vio lo que sucede en Cuba como posibilidades para dispararse al infinito por lo “emprendedores que son los cubanos”, que pida el dinero que cambiaron la película.

Por esa condición especial del “hombre nuevo”, cumplió el castrismo más de medio siglo de represión tiránico-dictatorial, porque no les importa recordar lo positivo para poner a buen recaudo de esos salvajes su sudor y sus integridades civiles.

Para complicarse, para reincidir, para continuar contribuyendo con su propia destrucción, olvidan muy rápido lo que deberían tener presente siempre, que la única solución es eliminar de raíz el cancer que es aquella basura, pero no hablando ni llamando a diálogos, sino quemando, arrasando, poniendo bombas y tirando cocteles molotov que los pongan en la ilegalidad absoluta, a fin de cuentas, están dispuestos a vivir una existencia parcialmente así, porque no pueden poner películas en videos por televisor a peso el invitado o vender una cartera en un portal que les envió el dueño del “negocio” desde Miami.

Que no lo quieren hacer porque el castrismo “es mucho con demasiado” para sus existencias, bien, pero que nadie sueñe intentando influir a favor de esa gente y su desgano ante el llamado patriótico, justificándolos con el miedo a... o inspirando lástima;  viéndolo bien, allá y en una buena cantidad de aquí lo que no tienen es cara ni verguenza ni principios, el miedo no juega ningún papel en ese sainete desde hace rato y lástima no han merecido nunca.

Cuba: Cines 3D y salas de video-juegos a la clandestinidad

Cubanet

Por Julio Cesar Álvarez

 

La Habana, noviembre de 2013 – Cines y salas de juegos creados por el sector privado para aplacar el aburrimiento es una muestra de lo que se puede lograr en poco tiempo con la descentralización de la economía. La prohibición del gobierno de estas actividades recreativas, muestra quienes son los que frenan los cambios.

¿Qué es el cine: Arte? ¿Método de colonización cultural? ¿Lavado de cerebro? ¿Entretenimiento?

La mayoría de los espectadores a los que he preguntado busca entretenerse, pasarla bien, pronunciar un “coñooo” cuando la tecnología y el ingenio les muestran algo sorprendente. Al menos, para muchos, ese es el ingrediente sine qua non de “la estupenda realidad que llaman cine”, como diría Ortega y Gasset.

Por otro lado están las condiciones de comodidad ideales para disfrutar de una película. La mayoría de los entrevistados mencionaron una sala climatizada, sillas o butacas cómodas, poder merendar o picar mientras ven la película. Los menos preferían degustar un trago en ese momento.

Esas dos condiciones, pasarla bien y cómodo, las reunían las salas privadas de exhibición cinematográficas en 3D que operaban públicamente, aunque sin una licencia que le permitiera ejercer dicha actividad.

A pesar de que el viceministro de cultura Fernando Rojas afirmó el pasado 27 de octubre de que no se trataba de prohibir este tipo de actividad, sino de regularla, lo cierto es que los cubanos dueños de salas 3D amanecieron el sábado 2 de noviembre con la prohibición tajante de reanudar las exhibiciones.

“La exhibición cinematográfica, que incluye las salas de 3D, así como la organización de juegos computacionales, nunca han sido autorizados y cesarán de inmediato en cualquier tipo de actividad por cuenta propia”, rezaba la nota informativa publicada por el órgano oficial del Comité Central del Partido Comunista de Cuba el sábado 2 de noviembre.

Dueños de este tipo de salas, como Ronny, de la Víbora, esperaban que el gobierno le otorgara la licencia para legalizarse, aunque estuviera supervisada por el ministerio de cultura municipal. “He invertido miles de dólares en el negocio. ¿Qué hago ahora con todo ese equipamiento? ¿Cómo recupero la inversión?”

 

La casa de cultura del municipio 10 de octubre, cita en calzada de diez de octubre esquina a Carmen, tenía entre sus planes contratar el servicio de este tipo de cines para actividades con los niños. Pero con la nueva prohibición nadie se atreve si quiera a hablar del asunto.

“No era una mala idea. A los niños les encantan los animados en 3D, les divierte ponerse las gafas y encontrarse con sus personajes favoritos en esa dimensión. Si lográbamos que alguno de estos dueños de cine 3D accediera a este tipo de intercambio, lograríamos llevar el 3D a un número mayor de niños con pocas posibilidades de ir a una función privada”, declaraba una promotora cultural de la casa de la cultura, quien prefirió el anonimato.

El negocio del video juego

Una actividad menos extendida que el cine 3D, pero que gana adeptos en algunos lugares de la ciudad es el negocio del video juego. El Tecnopremier El Maravilla, un complejo tecnológico por cuenta propia, en la Calzada de 10 de octubre, entre San Francisco y Concepción, ofrece una variedad de servicios informáticos como la instalación de software, reparación de hardware, impresión y digitalización, clases de computación, y una moderna sala de video juegos que funciona las 24 horas, y cuyo encargado permitió fotografiar, aunque declinó ofrecer declaraciones.

 

A un precio de 20 pesos moneda nacional por hora de juego, la sala cuenta con computadoras conectadas en red para jugar a juegos como Call of Duty, Word of Warcraft, FIFA, y otros. Cuenta también con Xbox 360 con Kinect (Detector de Movimiento Corporal) con más de 30 juegos de esta clase. Todo un set de lujo en comparación a lo que pueden ofrecer los viejos software y computadoras de los Joven Club de Computación.

Con la nueva prohibición, los niños que actualmente asisten a estos lugares—que no son pocos— contarán con un lugar menos para poder jugar los video-juegos que les gustan. Tendrán que volver a hacer colas en algún Joven Club de Computación para acceder a juegos autorizados por la “política cultural del gobierno”, como Gesta Final, videojuego cubano que recrea el periodo de 1956 a 1959, en el que los rebeldes liderados por Fidel combatían en las lomas de la Sierra Maestra.

Sala video juego de El Maravilla, foto Julio Cesar Álvarez

“Al paso que vamos tendremos que ir a locales clandestinos para poder ver las películas o jugar los juegos que nos gusten”, afirmaba Juan Carlos, un joven de 16 años fanático de los juegos de computadoras.

Para el cubano de a pie, la decisión de prohibir los cines 3D, y las salas de video juegos significa menos opciones de entretenimiento para un pueblo cansado de ver lo que le obligan a ver en salas de cines deterioradas por el tiempo y la ineptitud.

Pero para los soldados del Ministerio de Cultura de Cuba, una institución gobbeliana encargada de velar por la “pureza y calidad” de lo que se exhibe o se juega, la mayor preocupación reside en que “triunfe definitivamente el gusto masivo por una filmografía etiquetada en Hollywood, acompañada por productos televisivos que entronizan la banalidad y el entretenimiento más ramplón”.

Report: 3D-Printed Rifle Successfully Fires 14 Rounds

breitbart

By AWR Hawkins 

A Canadian rifle maker has successfully fired a 3D-printed rifle, based on firearms designer Cody Wilson's work on a homemade handgun crafted from thermoplastics.

Mashable.com reports that "Matthew" has successfully fired 14 rounds from a .22 rifle created from a 3D printer.

The rifle represents Matthew's second prototype and is called Grizzly 2.0. The barrel of the first prototype cracked after firing just one round, so he adjusted the barrel's thickness and fired 14 rounds from the next model before experiencing any problems.

The Grizzly 2.0 is a single shot rifle. The user reloads it after each shot by taking off the barrel, clearing it of the spent shell casing, and loading another round.  

The Grizzly 2.0's creator has uploaded video of a purportedly successful firing test.

Cody Wilson's Defense Distributed, an organization dedicated to creating designs for 3D "wiki weapons," revealed a single-shot pistol created with a 3D printer in May of 2013. The "Liberator" personal firearm made headlines when Wilson successfully tested it, and days later the Department of Defense demanded he pull the gun's design from his website. Defense Distributed claims to have plans for the next step in 3D firearm creation: "the lower receiver of an AR-15... rifle."

ThreeD Ukulele 

3-D Printed Pizza to Feed Mars Colonists?

Discovery News

By Ian O'Neill

One of the biggest challenges facing humanity in space is: how to cultivate food. Coincidentally, one of the biggest challenges facing the entire planet in the near future will be: how to cultivate enough food to support an ever-swelling population. Wouldn’t it be delicious if both challenges could be solved, or at least partially solved, using the same, open-source technology?
Enter the 3-D printer: your all-in-one solution to lunar habitat-building, gun-making and space pizza preparation! Now, the latter has grabbed the attention of NASA, which has approved a $125,000 grant for a mechanical engineer to develop a prototype of his universal food synthesizer based on 3-D printing technology.
ANALYSIS: 3-D Printed Space Food For the Gourmet Astronaut
3-D printing certainly isn’t new to the space technology arena. It has been pegged as a potential answer to building habitats on the moon and Mars, for example. A 3-D printer could be landed onto a planetary body ahead of a human mission and it could automatically construct habitable structures out of locally-mined materials.
Also, there’s some hypothetical ideas for the future of 3-D printed satellites. It seems that once the technology matures, complex components for machines and other space equipment could be manufactured in situ.
But what about food?
Launching supplies into space is, of course, costly. So the ultimate aim for any long-duration interplanetary trip or long-term human presence on the surface of Mars would be to develop sustainable food cultivation techniques. A supply of fresh veggies would be the backbone of any healthy colony! But before we see a renewable supply of Mars mushrooms and cosmic cucumbers, we’d need to change the way we see food. The 3-D printer could just do that.
ANALYSIS: Print Me a Condo on the Moon!
To Anjan Contractor, of Systems and Materials Research Corporation (SMRC) in Austin, Texas, food is just a collection of compounds that can be isolated in the form of a powder. These different varieties of powder can then be mixed with oils and water, combined by his 3-D printer. Governed not by a paperback recipe book, the printer would be controlled by software recipes. Food can then be printed to order.
Interestingly, an individual’s dietary requirements can be tightly controlled — in the future of Mars colonization, this could prove to be very useful. Colonists’ food could be easily fortified with vitamins or minerals they are lacking. One could imagine medicines being added to foodstuffs via computer commands. Once you strip down food into its barest of components, our future Mars colonists could keep very close tabs on their calorie intake and general health.
In an interview with Quartz, Contractor outlined his vision of eliminating food waste — the powder his system will use is shelf-stable for up to 30-years. For long-duration spaceflight, this would be a huge advantage.
“Long distance space travel requires 15-plus years of shelf life,” he said. “The way we are working on it is, all the carbs, proteins and macro and micro nutrients are in powder form. We take moisture out, and in that form it will last maybe 30 years.”
ANALYSIS: Domino’s Pizza Moon Plan is All Topping, No Base
With his NASA Small Business Innovation Research program grant, Contractor will build a “pizza printer.” Although that may not sound very appetizing, pizza is an obvious choice for a first 3-D printed food as it can be layered with ingredients. The first layer, the dough, will be printed onto a hot plate that will immediately bake the base of the pizza. Then, powdered tomato puree will be mixed with oil and layered over the top. A layer of protein will also be added.
This isn’t the first 3-D printed food concept to make it into the limelight. As reported by Discovery News’ Markus Hammonds in February, the company Fab@Home is also developing a 3-D printer to create foodstuffs out of “edible hydrocolloidal suspensions” (gel-like mixtures of solids and liquids). In their research, they’ve stumbled into an “uncanny valley of food” where the 3-D foods don’t feel quite right when eaten. More work is obviously needed to understand how to mimic not only the flavors, but also the texture of food.
Contractor hopes, however, that by making his 3-D food synthesizer open-source, that once his technology is matured and released to the world, others will innovate and develop the technology, perhaps overcoming this unsavory uncanny valley.
Although the applications in space are obvious — and even Jean Luc Picard would be impressed by this modest attempt at a Star Trek replicator — Contractor is acutely aware that this idea may, one day, transform the way we conceive food here on Earth. This in-turn may help feed the planet.
“I think, and many economists think, that current food systems can’t supply 12 billion people sufficiently,” he said. “So we eventually have to change our perception of what we see as food.”
So will the first manufactured food on Mars be a 3-D printed pizza from a 3-D printed Pizza Hut? If so, may I suggest the first family-sized pizza be called the “Olympus Mons-ter.”
via SPACE.com

«Clic, imprimir, arma», un documental sobre las armas impresas en 3D

Microsiervos

En Vice: Click, imprimir, arma: la historia del movimiento de las armas creadas con impresoras 3d,

Cody R. Wilson. Wilson, de 25 años, es un estudiante de derecho en la Universidad de Texas que está trabajando en la construcción de armas semiautomáticas utilizando una impresora 3D. La primera vez que escuché su nombre fue hablando con un colega después de que Wilson subiera un vídeo en Indiegogo demostrando qué intenciones tenía con su recién adquirida impresora Stratasys 3D (una impresora que Stratasys le arrebató más tarde).

Uno de los problemas más evidentes es que este tipo de armas son invisibles para los detectores de metales, aunque la munición tiene que seguir siendo necesariamente de verdad y hay que poder comprarla. El percutor también tiene que ser metálico, aunque se trate de un clavo.

En EE UU se ha levantado bastante revuelo con el asunto. El verdadero problema, según Businessweek, es que en aquel país es más fácil comprar un arma que imprimirla,

Let's All Calm Down About 3D Plastic Guns — Con algo de conocimientos es posible hacer un arma en el sótano de casa, y hay formas menos complicadas de conseguirlas que utilizando un equipo informático de 10.000 dólares. Por internet puedes comprar cualquier cosa desde una pistola Glock de 9 mm a un rifle semiautomático de tipo militar con cargador para 30 proyectiles.

En otros países, caso de España, es mucho más difícil comprar armas y munición de este tipo. Por ejemplo, en España «la razón de defensa de personas o bienes, por sí sola, no justifica la concesión de la licencia» para armas cortas, informa la Guardia Civil. En EE UU es al contrario, ésta razón es en la que se basa el derecho a tener y llevar armas.

De nuevo se demuestra —como leí por ahí hace poco, no recuerdo dónde— que según se utilice la tecnología puede ser buena o puede ser mala, pero nunca es neutra.

3D-printed ‘bionic’ ear melds electronics and biology

KurzweilAI

Scientists at Princeton University have used a 3D printer to create a functional ear that can “hear” radio frequencies up to microwave frequencies.

Scientists used 3-D printing to merge tissue and an antenna capable of receiving radio signals (credit: Frank Wojciechowski)Añadir leyenda

The researchers’ primary purpose was to explore an efficient and versatile means to merge electronics with tissue. The scientists used 3D printing of cells and nanoparticles, followed by cell culture to combine a small coil antenna with cartilage, creating what they term a “bionic ear.”

There are mechanical and thermal challenges with interfacing electronic materials with biological materials, as Michael McAlpine, an assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Princeton and the lead researcher points out.

Response of the bionic ear to radio frequencies in terms of the forward power
transmission coefficient (credit: Manu S Mannoor et al./Nano Letters)

However. McAlpine’s team has made several advances in recent years involving the use of small-scale medical sensors and antenna. Last year, a research effort led by McAlpine and Naveen Verma, an assistant professor of electrical engineering, and Fio Omenetto of Tufts University, resulted in the development of a “tattoo” made up of a biological sensor and antenna that can be affixed to the surface of a tooth.

Standard tissue engineering involves seeding types of cells, such as those that form ear cartilage, onto a scaffold of a polymer material called a hydrogel. But the researchers said that this technique has problems replicating complicated three-dimensional biological structures. Ear reconstruction “remains one of the most difficult problems in the field of plastic and reconstructive surgery,” they wrote.

To solve the problem, the team turned to 3D printing, its first use to interweave tissue with electronics, the researchers say. The technique allowed them to combine the antenna electronics with tissue within the highly complex topology of a human ear.

The researchers used a Fab@Home 3D printer to combine a matrix of hydrogel and calf cells with silver nanoparticles, which form an antenna. The printed bioelectronic hybrid ear construct was then cultured in vitro to enable cartilage to grow.

The finished ear consists of a coiled antenna inside a cartilage structure. Two wires lead from the base of the ear and wind around a helical “cochlea” — the part of the ear that senses sound — which can connect to electrodes.

(Top) Optical images of the functional materials, including biological (chondrocyte cells), structural (silicone), and electronic (AgNP-infused silicone) used to form the bionic ear. (Bottom) 3D printer used for the printing process. (Credit: Manu S Mannoor et al./Nano Letters)

McAlpine cautions that further work and extensive testing would need to be done before a version of the technology could be used on a patient for normal hearing. He said the ear in principle could be used to restore or enhance human hearing.

He said electrical signals produced by the ear could be connected to a patient’s nerve endings, similar to a hearing aid. The current system receives radio waves, but he said the research team plans to incorporate other materials, such as pressure-sensitive electronic sensors, to enable the ear to register ordinary acoustic sounds.

Support for the project was provided by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, NIH, and the Grand Challenges Program at Princeton University.

Guns and garden gnomes: 3-D printer revolution is now

Technology on NBCNews.com

LANCE ROSENFIELD / Redux Pictures

LANCE ROSENFIELD / Redux Pictures

Cody Wilson, who is in the process of developing a gun that will be printed on a 3-D printer, in Austin, Texas.

Addressing a packed auditorium at Austin’s South by Southwest festival last March, Bre Pettis, keynote speaker and co-founder of MakerBot, one of the leaders in desktop 3-D printers, described the increased interest and affordability of his company’s product as heralding the “the next Industrial Revolution.”

"Revolution" is often used even when the result doesn't match the definition — a complete change from the way things were before. Add "Industrial," and the comparison implies not just a change in manufacturing, but society as well, from improved living standards to changes in social class structure. Whether — and how — desktop 3-D printing can bring such changes is much debated, and remains to be seen.

Thanks to companies such as MakerBot, the bulk, expense and technical inefficiency that kept the 30-year-old technology known as Additive Manufacturing — or 3-D printing — confined to major laboratories and factories, is a thing of the past. Now, for less than $3,000, anyone with basic computer skills and an interest in learning more can download and personalize or create a computer-assisted design (CAD) that a printer will fabricate, layer by layer of filament.

Pettis is not the first to make the “next Industrial Revolution” comparison. For some within the maker community — subculture of tech-based do-it-yourself-ers — the increased accessibility of 3-D printer technology means "the end of consumerism.” Conversely, tech analysis firms Gartner predicts that 3-D printing could create opportunities for new product lines created in-house by local retailers. And Daniel Suarez, who spent a decade developing logistics and production planning software for major multinational corporations (and is also a best-selling novelist who writes about near-future technologies) predicts that "3-D printing will be a disruptive economic force in the next two decades — but I also think this disruption will benefit average Americans by causing a resurgence in local manufacturing."

Fervor over 3-D printing’s potential has only increased since SXSW, when Pettis introduced a prototype for the MakerBot Digitizer, which will scan small objects with the end goal of 3-D fabrication. He illustrated the Digitizer’s potential with a projection of a garden gnome, scanned to create … another garden gnome.

For those who don’t so much see an endless supply of home-printed garden gnomes as “revolution,” so much as a shot at getting on A&E’s “Hoarders,” there’s Cody Wilson, the notorious public face of Defense Distributed. Wilson is a University of Texas law student recently licensed to manufacture guns by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. In March, Defense Distributed, much to the consternation of gun control advocates, printed the plastic lower receiver for an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle — the portion of a firearm that carries the serial number — which that can fire more than 600 rounds.

Scary, legal and — as Wilson points out — a 3-D printed result that actually does something.

MakerBot

Wilson latched on to Pettis’s garden gnome to express his frustration with the maker community to make something more than geegaws during his riveting yet sparsely attended SXSW presentation about Defense Distributed and DefCAD, an open-source CAD design website he launched after MakerBot’s Thingiverse CAD site dumped all the gun designs from the site following the mass shooting in Newtown, Conn.

A cursory scan on Thingiverse finds a sea of files to create iPhone cases, and myriad holders and stands, but other than clock components, parts to complete a cigar box ukulele, and a theoretical design for a working camera, there isn’t a lot on the open source data base that does stuff.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Wilson is using the platform of 3-D printing to make a political statement about— and push the boundaries of — liberty and the freedom to share information. “I think this isn't a project about firearms, it’s a project about political equality,” Wilson recently told NBC’s Nightly News.

The potential Wilson sees for for 3-D printers isn't just about guns, but prosthetics and other medical devices, even drugs, putting the means of production in the hands of the people.

Pettis and Wilson are often portrayed as polar opposites in the 3-D printer movement, but they both face the inevitable roadblock of all new digital technology — intellectual copyright law.

"When it comes to 3-D printers, groups producing tools, weapons, and reproducing patented or copyrighted objects will be where all the debate and legal fireworks will occur," Suarez told NBC News.

"Sure, a copyright holder might get upset when individuals reproduce their trademarked cartoon character as little plastic tchotchkes, but I suspect this will follow the same path as digital music and torrented video — namely, there will be several high profile legal cases against perceived infringers until big companies realize technological advances have made this an unstoppable tide."

And so begins the revolution.

3D Print Demo

Pajamasmedia

Would You Eat Steak From a Printer?

freakonomics

(Photo: Cea)

We’ve talked before about one possible future of food production: food printers.  Andras Forgacs is the CEO of a company called Modern Meadow, which is working on printing leather and meat products. He recently took questions on reddit.com; here’s his take on his company’s progress with replicating hamburger and steak:

Real steak is a big stretch. It won’t be the first product since steak is very hard to make for now. Instead, the first wave of meat products to be made with this approach will likely be minced meats (burgers, sausages, etc.) and pates (goose liver pate, etc.). Also seafood is an early possibility since the texture requires may be easier to achieve than premium cuts.

While I doubt anyone will make commercial quantities of premium steak within 10 years, we will eventually get there but it will be an Nth generation product.

And here’s an interesting talk Forgacs gave on the technology:

(HT: Daily Dish)

3D printed car is as strong as steel, half the weight, and nearing production

kurzweilai

Picture an assembly line not that isn’t made up of robotic arms spewing sparks to weld heavy steel, but a warehouse of plastic-spraying printers producing light, cheap and highly efficient automobiles. If Jim Kor’s dream is realized, that’s exactly how the next generation of urban runabouts will be produced, Wired reports. His creation is called the … more >>

Scientists Use 3-D Printer to Speed Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research

Image of human embryo stem cell droplets courtesy of Will Shu/Biofabrication

scientificamerican

By Larry Greenemeier

Every week, it seems, there’s a new breakthrough in 3-D printing that promises us the ability to (eventually) fabricate some new thing in one of those glass-walled wonder boxes. Such things have included everything from spare parts for the International Space Station above to the beef on our dinner plates to the organs inside our bodies. Although this last idea of fabricating body parts may seem the most fanciful, a team of scientists is reporting a breakthrough in 3-D printing using human embryonic stem cells that could purportedly lead to life-like bioengineered tissue and, eventually, artificial organs tailor-made for specific patients.
Researchers have been able to engineer tissue samples in the past by combining artificial scaffold-like structures and animal cells. Depositing human embryonic stem cells in cultures using a 3-D printer offers some advantages. In particular, the cells can be positioned in droplets of uniform size cheaper, faster and more easily than using manual methods. This uniformity is important for researchers trying to generate specific cell types.

Image of 3-D cell printer courtesy of Colin Hattersley

Whereas human embryonic stem cells have proved too fragile to print in the past, scientists at Scotland’s Heriot-Watt University and Roslin Cellab, a stem cell technology company, say they have developed a new technique that allowed them to deposit droplets of a consistent size containing living cells that survived the process and maintained their ability to develop into different types of mature cells. The research will be published Tuesday in the journal Biofabrication.
In the 3-D printing process, generally a nozzle resembling an inkjet deposits thin layers of resin or a polymer that hardens—either naturally or after being sintered by a laser—into a particular structure. So-called “bioprinters” naturally use cells rather than plastics to create organic structures. However, this technique can damage the printed cells, so the Heriot-Watt and Roslin Cellab scientists developed a printing system driven by pneumatic pressure and controlled by the opening and closing of a microvalve. The researchers could precisely control the amount of cells dispensed by changing the nozzle diameter, the inlet air pressure or the opening time of the valve.

The scientists acknowledge that other researchers have in the past printed mouse embryonic stem cells and even certain types of human stem cells. Human embryonic stem cells, although more sensitive to physical manipulation, can generate a wider variety of specific cell types than other forms of human stem cells. In addition, any tissue formed would yield better models of human biology than those formed from mouse cells.
The use of embryonic stem cells has been a source of controversy particularly in the United States. Last month the US Supreme Court ended an effort to shut down government support of human embryonic stem cell research by refusing to hear a case that challenged the legality of funding for the work by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). This means NIH-funded researchers can continue to work with the 195 new human embryonic stem cell lines the federal government has made available to them.
Despite the success reported by the Scottish scientists, 3-D-printed organs are still decades away from reality. Unlike the skin and muscle tissue that some researchers have successfully fabricated in the lab, solid organs such as the liver, kidney and heart require complex vascular structures that allow them to absorb nutrients and discard waste. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania’s Tissue Microfabrication Laboratory, the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine and elsewhere are developing methods for bioengineering functional vessels that could someday be used to ferry blood around 3-D-printed organs.
A more immediate benefit of 3-D printing embryonic stem cells might be the ability to make tissue samples that could be used to accurately test drug compounds for toxicity in humans, without the need for animal testing, according to the researchers.