[Hardastarboard]

I’ve never understood materials engineering. How do you choose from millions of possible materials and combinations? How can you even remotely begin to know a small portion of them and what their characteristics are?

[null and void]

3-D Printer Ping!

Political power grows out of the nozzle of a 3-D Printer.

[driftdiver]

Print a really really small gun.

[cdcdawg]

Can we call it “Rearden Metal”? Seriously, The next couple of decades could be amazing if the government doesn’t eat up all of the capital.

[Ramius]

This stuff is going to change life as we know it. The future of materials science is just going to be amazing. We will soon have materials with properties that are just plain impossible today.

[ctdonath2]

I’ve long wondered that connection points are astoundingly strong for small size (consider an entire bridge sits on just a few square feet), could an entire structure be made of them? Nice answer to that question. Looking forward to the future.

[Organic Panic]

I’m a machinist. Give me a chunk of metal and I’ll make anything you want.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

As light as water?

Water is pretty heavy.

[Atlas Sneezed]

Triangular micro-truss structure about 30 millionths of a meter wide.

---

That’s 30 thousandths of a millimeter, or 33 per millimeter.

Just a bit bigger than a thousandth of an inch (a “mil” to old machinists).