Slashdot Mirror
Injured Bald Eagle Gets New 3-D Printed Beak
An anonymous reader writes "A bald eagle that lost its beak to a poacher's gun receives a 3-D printed beak prosthetic like a dental implant."
More (with pictures): "Mr Calvin, a founder of the Boise-based Kinetic Engineering Group, made a mold of Beauty's shattered upper mandible, laser-scanned it, fine-tuned it in a 3D modeling program, and created a prosthetic beak from a nylon-based polymer."
They really had an opportunity here. What would be cooler than a bald eagle with a shiny carbon-fiber-and-titanium beak? Maybe make him some razor sharp metal talons too. That would give the poachers pause!
State of the art dentistry uses CAD/CAM. 3D imaging creates base model which is tweaked by dental technician then created in an automatic milling machine. Takes about 45 minutes and eliminates a second visit (think one round of anesthesia).
Not sure that 3D printing could make anything nearly as strong as necessary for a tooth.
Now just to give it a 3d-printed gun, so it can go get revenge on the poacher who shot it.
I was recently asked by a client to 3D print some replacement parts for his pet duck.
But he balked when I gave him the bill.
3D Printing Tips and Tricks at Zheng3.com
I think not being able to eat is a bigger health problem than some hypothetical chemicals. In any case, fish will probably taste better than hand-feeding it with the flesh of Anonymous Cowards.
#naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
That 3D printing couldnt get any more awesome, something like this comes out of nowhere an proves that, yes, it can!
What implications does this hold for humans?aube we could get 3D printe false teeth with A faster turn-around than current moulding techniques.
I actually have such a tooth. I went into the dentist's office. He scanned my mouth with a 3d scanner, then used software to model the missing tooth. Then, the software sent the output to a milling machine, with a ceramic-on-metal blank. Total time, less than an hour from scanning my mouth to implanted tooth. I already had an implant grafted to my jawbone, so this was just the crown, but still, I was very impressed.
Did you mount a military-grade, variable-focus MASER on an unlicensed artificial intelligence?
I can't wait to read 5 new and exciting 3D printing stories each and every day!
What doesn't kill you only delays the inevitable
FTFA:
"Beauty continues to thrive under our care without her upper beak. The new growth pushed out the hardware which anchored the prosthetic beak."
I emailed Birds of Prey Northwest for an update on Beauty and received this reply yesterday from Ms Fink (Cantwell):
Beauty continues to thrive under our care without her upper beak. The new growth pushed out the hardware which anchored the prosthetic beak. Recently the small amount of new growth has allowed Beauty to do something she has not been able to do since her injury-eat independently. We have constructed a special feeding platform for her and she now feeds herself! We are looking to the future as we measure her minute growth and construct a new plan of attachment. Construction of the beak is the easy part, it is the attachment that is the challenge. Recently, her 2008 procedure videoed by a Seattle news team, was made available on Vimeo and we have had lots of inquiries. Some have suggested that Beauty has a much greater educational impact WITHOUT her beak. When the prosthetic was in place, her story is lost at first glance. Time will tell whether she goes through life with or without a beak. In the meantime, she will remain in north Idaho under my care where she is cherished and well cared for.
Old news, and completely out of date now. The 3D printed beak happened in 2008, and it will no longer work due to growth that pushed out the mounting brackets. Beauty does not have an upper beak now, though the growth is allowing her to eat without the prosthetic.
In any case, fish will probably taste better than hand-feeding it with the flesh of Anonymous Cowards.
But far less satisfying...
/* No Comment */
I know this is a random AC posting something meant to be humorous but I have to chime in: Plastic surgery was originally developed to repair damage by accident, injury or disease. Fixing an eagle's beak would actually be the exact purpose of plastic surgery as originally developed.
I have no beak and I am just fine!
Inquisitive means "inclined to ask questions", not "inclined to ask intelligent questions."
Since this is slashdot and that means nobody reads the fucking articles, I'll answer it for you. They used a nylon based polymer. We use nylon polymers for clothing, wrapping meats, and sausage sheaths.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nylon
Chinese manufactured nylon often contains DDM, which is dangerous if directly ingested. The articles don't detail the specific makeup of the polymers used, so even if they happened to not research this particular issue I'm sure as others have responded that the risk of starving to death would be deemed greater than the risk of the bird getting a tumor because of this.
I thought we use latex to wrap meat.
Oh sorry. Wrong kind of meat.
"Lack of speed can be overcome. In the worst case by patience." --Znork
Plastic surgery was originally developed to repair damage by accident, injury or disease.
And still is, called restorative plastic surgery, as opposed to cosmetic which is the more common and commonly known type today.
In high school, I saw a slideshow presentation by a restorative plastic surgeon. It was like 80 slides of 3rd degree burns, skin grafts, feet caught in paper shredders, and on and on. One of the first slides was a little girl who'd been hit in the face by a tire kicked off by an accident on the other side of the road. You could see her teeth through her cheek.
Several students threw up.
I have no idea what they were thinking. Other than convincing the "pre-med" students to find another major when they went to college. But why did the rest of us have to watch?
The enemies of Democracy are
Did you watch the video embedded in the story? It's unbelievable how all the science was stripped out and replaced with awful bullshit attempts at heightening the emotional content of the story, to the point of hilarity. Shame on you, shitty news producers.