Category Archives: News
Bringing Woolly Mammoths and Dinosaurs Back to Life With 3D Printing
Marguerite Humeau is using 3D printing to give a voice to creatures from long ago, specifically from the prehistoric era.
Thanks to the heaps of dinosaur bones scattered across the globe, paleontologists have a vague idea of what dinosaurs looked like when they roamed the earth millions of years ago. But what they sounded like is a tougher nut to crack. Vocal chords are made of soft tissue and cartilage, which means they don’t fossilize. The roars and squawks we hear in movies aren’t exactly made up, but they certainly aren’t based on scientific fact. Marguerite Humeau has spent the last two years working with paleontologists, zoologists, engineers, and doctors to recreate the noises our scaly forebears might have made.
Humeau has chosen to reimagine creatures from three vastly different prehistoric eras: There’s Ambulocetus, or the “walking whale,” a Cetacean that could swim and walk over 50 million years before our time. Entelodont (also known as *shiver* Hell Pig) was a massive omnivore that roamed more than 20 million years ago. The youngest is Mammoth Imperator, the species of giant mammoth that Humeau recreated for her graduation show in 2011.
Using a combination of her artistic intuition and scientific data, Humeau is creating the voice boxes of these creatures, and subsequently building a new library of animal sounds never before heard in the modern era.
The video below, entitled “Proposal for resuscitating prehistoric creatures,” sets up the rebirth of cloned creatures, their wandering and their sound epic.
Via Co.Design.
Shapeways Turns Four, Parties Like 3D Printing Rock Stars
Congratulations to 3D printing marketplace Shapeways on its 4th anniversary!
It has been quite a year for Shapeways, from raising $6.2 million in series B funding to opening a NYC distribution center to hitting the milestone of 1 million 3D printed products.
Photos from the party are available here and here. Looks like a great party. Don’t forget to invite us next time, Shapeways!
Top 3D Printing Headlines Last Week: Guns, Germs, and ABS Plastic
A roundup of the top news On 3D Printing brought you from July 23 to July 29.
Monday, July 23
Friday, July 27
- Afinia Targets Consumer Market with New 3D Printer Priced at $1499
- Organovo 3D Printing: Bold Mission But Needs Cash, May Offer Secondary
Saturday, July 28
University of Washington Club 3D Prints a Boat with Recycled Materials
Students at University of Washington have achieved two amazing feats: 1) 3D print a 7-foot boat, and 2) use recycled milk cartons as the raw materials for the print.
The students are part of an organization called the University of Washington Fabbers, and used a large, custom-designed 3D printer in the UW’s Mechanical Engineering Building. The completed boat was raced at the annual Milk Carton Derby at Green Lake in Seattle.
The new UW student club, Washington Open Object Fabricators (or WOOF), built the boat as its inaugural project. They spent the last two months researching, engineering, extruding, printing, and dumpster diving for the greater good, and eventually produced a 40 lbs (~250 1 gallon milk jugs) “canoeyak” capable of supporting 150lbs.
The club aimed to be the first to print a seaworthy craft, but the judges of the Derby weren’t sure what to make of their creation. Qualification was a problem as the engineers had used recycled milk cartons for its buoyancy, but not quite in the way that contest organizers had originally envisioned. It was eventually decided that the boat should be entered as “an unofficial entry in the adult open category” — it placed second in the race.
Speaking to Phys.org, faculty adviser Mark Ganter, professor of mechanical engineering, said that printing a boat “was a historic first.”
“Frankly, milk jug material is an awful material to work with,” Ganter said. “It shrinks, it curls, it doesn’t want to stick to itself. Overcoming all those parts of the problem was part of the achievement.”
Via inhabitat.com.
Here Comes Controversy: Hobbyists 3D Print Automatic Weapons
An interesting and controversial story was published by Atomic MPC this week involving hobbyists designing and 3D printing automatic weapons.
In the wake of the tragic shooting in Colorado earlier this week, the Atomic forums entered a discussion on gun control and gun laws not only in Australia but the USA. Naturally as conversation progresses the topic goes off track a little, and one Atomican discovered a forum discussing the manufacture of AR15 lower receivers.
At first glance some readers, and especially gun enthusiasts may say “so what, why is this any different to making your own car parts?”. Well, the answer really is very simple, an engine part is not an object designed with the specific purpose of forging a weapon, a lower receiver is for the most part, is destined for such duties.
Okay, here comes the controversy. 3D printing is enabling easier access to guns, right? Wrong.
Look back at the 1993 film In The Line of Fire, starring Clint Eastwood and John Malkovich, and you will see a fanatic who creates a gun out of plastic molds. That was well before MakerBot got its start. Dangerous people will always find ways to hurt others. Technology does not accelerate this trend.
3D printing will have a revolutionary impact on our society, spanning industries from medical to logistics to entertainment. We hope to see, and report on, many more stories about the positive applications of this technology.
Via Atomic MPC.
