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Scientists "Print" Human Vein With 3D Printer

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the because-we-can dept.

An anonymous reader writes "3D Printing technology has recently leapt into a new realm — we've seen printers that can create entire buildings out of stone, delicious meals out of simple ingredients, and now — perhaps weirdest and coolest of them all — a printer that can build body parts from cells!"

17 of 94 comments (clear)

  1. So when do I get my replicator? by TheRedDuke · · Score: 5, Funny

    Tea. Earl Grey. Hot.

    1. Re:So when do I get my replicator? by DeadDecoy · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Screw that, how soon until I get my own kung-fu Milla Jovovich to save the universe.

  2. Those other things are really interesting... by clone53421 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Since TFS didn’t:

    we've seen printers that can create entire buildings out of stone, delicious meals out of simple ingredients

    References: 3-D Printer Creates Entire Buildings From Solid Rock, MIT’s Digital Food Printer Creates Nutritious Meals

    --
    Alexander Peter Kristopeit bought his basement from his mommy for one dollar.
  3. They get you with the cartridges by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Red-blood-cell-gut-and-bone cartridges are not balanced to printing needs.

    You are always running out of blood when you still have nearly full gut and bone reservoirs. But they make you replace the whole cart.

  4. Fingerprints by drunken_boxer777 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Excellent! Now I can print my epidermal cells in the pattern of a new set of fingerprints, transplant that skin to my fingers, and leave traces of CmdrTaco at crime scenes across the world!

    1. Re:Fingerprints by TheRaven64 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Why bother with the transplant? Just press the printed skin against a few things. As long as it has the same oils as normal skin, you'll get good fingerprints. If it's the right temperature, it should fool most biometric sensors too (and a lot of existing ones even without that).

      And then can we shoot whoever thought it was a good idea to use something that you leave on everything that you touch as a replacement for a password?

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
  5. And thus the scientists... by Sumbius · · Score: 5, Funny

    had invented a printer which had provided them with a plastic cup filled with a blob of cells that was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike a human vein.

  6. Re:Great - now my inbox will fill up with... by d1r3lnd · · Score: 3, Funny

    Get the email-enabled model, and your inbox will fill up with actual SPAM.

    Mmmmm.

  7. The Real Money by tpstigers · · Score: 3, Interesting

    This is really interesting stuff. I think the big payoff will come when they get to the point where bone can be 'printed'. Considering all the money there is in professional athletics, the ability to 'print' new kneecaps for athletes would be huge.

  8. Re:Sounds good. by d1r3lnd · · Score: 3, Funny

    they'll cost you at least an arm and a leg...

  9. Re:Printer? by omnichad · · Score: 3, Insightful

    They're called printers because they build things in layers with positioned spraying or placement in 2D. Cars aren't printed now, but if they were it might make them cheaper.

  10. Re:Sounds good. by SilasMortimer · · Score: 3, Funny

    In any event, if anyone feels the need to make any jokes about ink cost, cartridge DRM, or other wildly hilarious topics, please just use a reference to the older comments. Thanks.

    Thanks for that. I have a puppy. Want to kick it?

    --
    Omnes tuae crepidines sunt nobis sunt. Ascendo tuum!
  11. At UWMC we've been making parts for years by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 3, Informative

    Actually, we have been doing scaffolding work on various body parts for years, including livers and other organs.

    The hard one is the heart - the cardiovascular veins are easier to replace one by one though.

    --
    -- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
    1. Re:At UWMC we've been making parts for years by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      I'd heard the scaffolding was going pretty well; taking pig organs, stripping away the cells with some kind of solvent, leaving the collagen-based scaffolding, then 'doping' the scaffold with the patient's cells to produce a perfect 'match' organ - with the success the doctors had with the South American woman a while ago (and more recently with a 10 yr old boy - http://www.bionews.org.uk/page_56929.asp) I'd hoped this kind of rejection-free organ replacement was *very* close to being more generally available.

  12. Re:Great - now my inbox will fill up with... by Mindcontrolled · · Score: 3, Funny

    The day I get 25 3D-printed, fleshy, unattached penises rolling on my desk when I open my mailbox will be the day I quit all modern technology and vanish into the woods.

    --
    Ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant.
  13. Re:A little more respect is in order by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Perhaps you should rethink your level of politeness if you ever get a chance to ask a "kung fu MJ" to blow you. Try something a little more cajoling, and little less "likely to get your little one-eyed weasel ripped off."

  14. Finally by RivenAleem · · Score: 3, Funny

    Now I can send thinly veined insults across the nets