3-D printers can produce gun parts, aircraft wings, food and a lot more, but this new 3-D printed product may be the craziest thing yet: human embryonic stem cells.
Using stem cells as the “ink” in a 3-D printer, researchers in Scotland hope to eventually build 3-D printed organs and tissues. A team at Heriot-Watt University used a specially designed valve-based technique to deposit whole, live cells onto a surface in a specific pattern.
http://www.popsci.com/technology/articl ... -d-printer

The BotCave is home to MakerBot, a company that for nearly four years has been bringing affordable 3-D printers to the masses. But nothing MakerBot has ever built looks like the new printer these workers are currently constructing. The Replicator 2 isn’t a kit; it doesn’t require a weekend of wrestling with software that makes Linux look easy. Instead, it’s driven by a simple desktop application, and it will allow you to turn CAD files into physical things as easily as printing a photo. The entry-level Replicator 2, priced at $2,199, is for generating objects up to 11 by 6 inches in an ecofriendly material; the higher-end Replicator 2X, which costs $2,799, can produce only smaller items, up to 9 by 6 inches, but it has dual heads that let it print more sophisticated objects. With these two machines, MakerBot is putting down a multimillion-dollar wager that 3-D printing has hit its mainstream moment.
http://www.wired.com/design/2012/09/how ... facturing/

All of this adds up to a risky time for MakerBot, but Pettis sees the demonstration effect as key: Just as with the early PCs, the appeal of the devices can’t quite be understood until they’re seen in action. “Before people buy a MakerBot, they think of all the practical applications—all the stuff they can cross off their ‘honey-do’ list, the things they can fix around the house”—broken parts on the bike or the dishwasher, or a new toothbrush holder to fit a tight space. “But once they have it,” Pettis says, “their mind flips a switch. They start printing out amazing things, wonderful things.”

Seahawk Sailor wrote:3D printing is the wave of the future. Sort of a mini-transporter. Soon will come the day where we'll order certain items on the Internet, download them, and print them out ourselves. Talk about instant gratification!

The Radish wrote:In an interesting episode of CSI,(the Las Vegas one), they covered printing a gun with a 3D system. Turns out it might work for one shot but more than that the piece explodes as it doesn't get enough internal strength to hold the charge behind the cartridge.