The uses for a 3D printer are truly astounding. Take for example researchers at the University of Illinois, who have made a "walking� robot comprised of a smattering of hydrogel and a few cardiac rat cells. Researchers built the robot using a 3D printer, creating a cyborg inchworm whose forward motion occurs with every beat of the rat's heart cells.
The goal here was to create bio-compatible designs that mimic and take advantage of nature to build machines and solve problems. While the bio-bot is only 7 mm long - about a quarter-inch - it could be used in drug testing or other chemical detection jobs. Integrated sensors that react to certain chemicals could be installed on the bio-bot and cause it to veer away from specific chemical compounds, indicating their presence. It could be a 7mm-self-propelled canary in the coal mine.
From a release on the topic:
"The idea is that, by being able to design with biological structures, we can harness the power of cells and nature to address challenges facing society,� said Bashir, an Abel Bliss Professor of Engineering. "As engineers, we've always built things with hard materials, materials that are very predictable. Yet there are a lot of applications where nature solves a problem in such an elegant way. Can we replicate some of that if we can understand how to put things together with cells?�
The bio-bot moves because it's asymmetrical, with one long, thin leg resting on a shorter, wider support leg. The thin leg is covered in the rat heart cells and when those heart cells beat, the long, thin leg pulses and moves the bio-bot forward. Yes, this sounds utterly creepy, but it's undeniably cool to watch this thing spasm its way across the surface in the video:
As an aside, this is the second awesome research project I've read about being built by academics using a 3D printer. On Wednesday MIT detailed how students used a 3D printer to make a new type of radio antenna out of new meta-materials, which it compared to the planet-destroying Death Star from the Star Wars movie. The new antenna might be useful for deep-space imaging or perhaps microscopy at the nano level, but all I could think of was MIT students are using their 3D printers to recreate stuff from Star Wars movies.
Now I can add the folks at the University of Illinois to the list of institutions where researchers are taking 3D printers and building stuff out of science fiction novels.
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OmMalik/~3/0BCBDPpG4P8/story01.htm
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