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We've come a long, long way from the Model T. And if you think about it, our cars play a huge part in the journeys of our lives. I can still remember how my grandparents' dark gray Lincoln smelled back in the '70s, and almost feel those deliciously warm seats, heated from warm Florida days with the windows rolled down (with cigarette smoke wafting out, no doubt). I loved being dropped off for a weekend at their house, with my dad flying through their neighborhood (no worries about seat belts, kids!) to deliver me in our family station wagon, seemingly...

Researchers report that they've made progress toward using 3D printing technology to produce human tissue. The Harvard scientists say they've managed to create tissue in the laboratory that has vessels -- potentially allowing the tissue to be fed by blood -- and can survive for weeks. Despite accomplishing that feat, scientists still aren't close to producing human tissue that could be transplanted into the body and replace organs such as hearts and lungs, experts noted. But Dr. Anthony Atala, a specialist who's familiar with the study, said the new research is promising. "It shows what can happen in the laboratory...

HP wants to drive the "next industrial revolution" and spark a change in the way products are manufactured with its new 3D printers. The company's first 3D printers will ship later this year, said Cathie Lesjak, chief financial officer for HP, speaking at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media and Telecom Conference this week. HP first announced 3D printers in 2014, and is now preparing for the big launch. HP is looking to hire materials experts, mechanical engineers, managers and sales people for its push into 3D printing. HP has a rich history in printing and is entering a 3D printing...

Incredible strength and stiffness, chemical and temperature resistance, electrical conductivity, and low weight on par with plastic parts: carbon fiber 3D printing has it all, and its poised to be the next major trend in industrial additive manufacturing. While metal 3D printing has been skyrocketing in terms of popularity, market share, and high-demand applications for the past year, and will certainly continue to do so, 3D printing with carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) offers unique properties that are increasingly sought out in the aerospace, military, motorsports, robotics, automobile, and energy sectors. Namely, carbon fiber composites, which are made of extremely...

Laser cutters use lasers to cut shapes into existing material, but Rice University scientists have figured out how to make one build objects instead of cut them. The result is the $2,000 3D printer that you see above, constructing the blood vessel network inside a mouse liver. If we want to maximize the usefulness of 3D printers, we have to maximize the number of materials they can work with, while minimizing the cost. That was the goal of the Rice scientists, when they devised a way to make a 3D printer with a couple of days, a couple of thousand...

Scientists announced that for the first time ever, they were able to 3-D print an organ, successfully transplant it into an animal and get it to work. Last week, scientists announced that for the first time ever, they were able to 3-D print an organ, successfully transplant it into an animal and get it to work. If you're unsure of whether that's really as crazy as it sounds, it is. For years scientists have succeeded at 3-D printing "living" tissue, but that tissue has been too weak, too unstable and too small to implant into humans or animals. Getting the...

SIDNEY -- We've seen some truly eye-popping developments with 3D printers and medicine lately -- cells from an eye that were inkjet printed, for example; prosthetic ears that look real; complex silicon pathways used to stimulate nerves to grow and repair themselves -- just to name a few of the marvels. But medicine is not the only arena where 3D printing offers eye-popping possibility for the future. With the advent of cheaper and cheaper printers and better and better materials -- some of them approaching metallic strengths -- 3D printers could one day be as common a tool on the...

Organ printing is getting closer and closer to reality.In a breakthrough study, researchers at Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine announce that they’ve used an advanced 3-D printer to create sections of bone, muscle and cartilage that all functioned like the real thing when implanted in animals. 10 Amazing Parts Created Outside The Body The advance could make it possible to custom print replacement body parts and organs for anyone. The idea of printing tissue is not new. For years now, scientists have been using bioprinters to precisely lay down cells in specific patterns with the goal of creating a...

A West Virginia carpenter by the name of Derwood has developed a small 3D printed semi-automatic 9mm weapon which only requires metal for the steel barrel, springs and bullets. Three years ago, the first 3D printed gun was fabricated, a simple weapon called "The Liberator," and since that time the weapons have been evolving. The United States Gun Control Act (GCA) of 1968 allows citizens to manufacture their own guns, as long as they do not sell or transfer them without first obtaining a federal license. "This gun has been a work in process for about a year now," Derwood...

If you've been keeping up with 3D printing news at all, you're probably pretty familiar with metal 3D printing by now. It's one of the fastest-growing sectors in the industry; just about every major 3D printer manufacturer is scrambling to keep up with the rapidly developing metal technology. Not only is it becoming less expensive and more accessible, but material capabilities keep expanding, with new metals and alloys being introduced on what seems like a weekly basis by certain companies. Even if you have only a basic knowledge of metal 3D printing, you probably know that it's done with powder...

With the internet age and its endless possibilities in the realms of publishing, communication, and collaboration, opportunities have never been so widely accessible for creators. But how has our new digital world affected the pathways to invention? In Inventology: How We Dream Up Things That Change the World, out today, journalist Pagan Kennedy offers a fresh take on how the digital era has upended the traditional pathways for creation. When Kennedy began writing about inventors for The New York Times, she soon "would marvel at how few of the people were professional inventors, designers, in corporate innovation labs." It led...

Bengaluru: At a time when scientists all over the world are struggling to develop artificial liver tissue, three Bengaluru scientists have actually developed such tissues that perform functions of the human liver. This breakthrough has not just brightened hopes for patients seeking liver tissues from live donors, but has also brought a potential alternative to artificial extracorporeal liver support (or liver dialysis) used in detoxification treatment for liver failure - a process similar to hemodialysis. The trio that achieved the breakthrough comprises Arun Chandru, Dr Abdullah Chand and Dr Sivarajan T - all senior scientists at Pandorum Technologies Pvt Ltd,...

In a matter of two days, history was made at Chicago's McCormick Place, as the world's first 3-D printed electric car -- named Strati, Italian for "layers"-- took its first test drive. "Less than 50 parts are in this car," said Jay Rogers from Local Motors.

For a company that has emphasized they are not entering the 3D printing arena, Samsung sure does like applying for patents. We’ve covered similar stories on Apple and their patent applications as well, with mum being the general and concise word on their particular end. Often, while we can see what these mega-companies have going on conceptually, all that’s left to do is speculate. But boy, everyone sure is giving us some good stuff to chew on lately. Last we checked, Samsung had been awarded a patent regarding multicolor ink for 3D printing, That 3D printer concept operates with several...

Possessing files that can be used to 3D print firearms will soon be illegal in New South Wales after new legislation, passed last week by state parliament, comes into effect. Among the provisions of the Firearms and Weapons Prohibition Legislation Amendment Bill 2015 is an amendment to the Weapons Prohibition Act 1998 stating that a person "must not possess a digital blueprint for the manufacture of a firearm on a 3D printer or on an electronic milling machine." The maximum penalty is 14 years' jail. The provision does not apply to any person with a licence to manufacture firearms or...

Shortage of organs for transplantation has been one of the most challenging endeavor that patients, families and health care providers face today. But now, a possible novel answer to organ shortage has arrived: 3D printing of substitute organs. Numerous measures have been implemented to widen the pool of organ donors all across the U.S. Interventions to address the problem of organ shortage include national programs to heighten deceased donor donation, paired donor exchanges and split organ donation, among many others. Actions to hasten public awareness, enhance efficiency of donation mechanism and standardize donation policies have resulted in remarkable rates of...

A Real Railgun Made By 3D Printing – Fires 560 MPH Plasma ProjectilesIf you think the image above looks frightening, you’re right. The crazy contraption pictured in the image is the first portable railgun, a futuristic projectile launcher associated most commonly with the military or NASA. The man in the image above isn’t in the military, and he’s not a NASA engineer. Instead, he’s a civilian who used some engineering smarts, some widely available parts and a 3D printer to create a functioning weapon that can fire graphite, aluminum, tungsten and even plasma projectiles at speeds of more than 560...

A homebuilt, portable railgun is claimed to have achieved projectile energies comparable to commonly available air rifles.In the picture above, the capacitors, which store the railgun electrical energy, have been painted white.  They are the large cylindrical objects at the front and bottom of the gun.. Here is a video of a test of the railgun.  The rail gun can be carried, contains its own power supply for a single shot, and expels a projectile fast enough to make a half inch dent in plywood.  It probably would have penetrated the plywood, if the plywood had not had a...

If you think the image above looks frightening, you’re right. The crazy contraption pictured in the image is the first portable railgun, a futuristic projectile launcher associated most commonly with the military or NASA. The man in the image above isn’t in the military, and he’s not a NASA engineer. Instead, he’s a civilian who used some engineering smarts, some widely available parts and a 3D printer to create a functioning weapon that can fire graphite, aluminum, tungsten and even plasma projectiles at speeds of more than 560 mph. And then there’s the best part: There are videos of this...

3D printing is proving to be a potential game changer for a wide variety of fields. One group in particular that could benefit is the medical community, thanks to a recent development by scientists that could make it easier to print organs from living tissue. How? By printing structures inside of special gel that provides support during the build process. New Scientist reports that researchers from the University of Florida in Gainesville came to the breakthrough method while searching for a way to enable the printing of items that cannot support their own weight. The technique prints objects inside a...