Printing Ourselves a Better Life

Recently, I have been seeing a lot of articles in newspapers, magazines and even on the television, glorifying 3-D printing. It seems to have popped up almost out of nowhere and taken the world by storm.  I have come across reports of footwear, jewellery, guns and even prosthetic limbs being created by this new wave of technology. I had to know more.

In simple terms a 3-D printer is like the ink printers we all know and use. We send an electronic file to the machine, the machine starts spiting out ink on the desired spots as described in the electronic file, Ta Dah! We have a printed page. The 3-D printers that are commercially available follow the same basic idea only instead of spitting out ink at a piece of paper, it spits out polymers in layers that are fused using UV lasers. Simple.

The possibilities for 3-D printing are endless. Already it has proved life changing to many industries as well as individual people. I came across article that talks of how NASA has used the new technology to email, yes email, a wrench to the international space station. Thus saving weeks, months or possibly even years by not needing a rocket to be sent up.

While scouring the internet for more details, I stumbled across a heart warming story of an adorable dog named Derby, who was born with malformed front legs. His foster family sought help from scientists, who create new limbs for him using 3-D printing. I have attached the video and I highly recommend watching it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRmoowIN8aY#action=share

Technology advances at such a rapid rate in this day and age. If this is where we are at now, printing things from every day items to life changing equipment, the future can only be brighter.