A 3D printer-created lower jaw has been fitted to an 83-year-old woman's face in what doctors say is the first operation of its kind.

The transplant was carried out in June in the Netherlands, but is only now being publicised.

The implant was made out of titanium powder - heated and fused together by a laser, one layer at a time.

This is the kind of magic that 3D printing was invented for.

+1

Couldn't agree more.

TBF, sintering titanium powder using a laser is quite a way away from the 'near commercial' 3D printers we're beginning to see around. They're great machines with a revolutionary potential but they're a mile away from what was done here. Titanium is never going to be a material you'll be able to make stuff from at home unless you're Mark Zuckerberg.

Jon

I was at a presentation by a firm that discussed it all, but yeah, lets face it, we all want a titanium sintering printer.

Skin cells have been converted directly into cells which develop into the main components of the brain, by researchers studying mice in California.

The experiment, reported in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, skipped the middle "stem cell" stage in the process.

The researchers said they were "thrilled" at the potential medical uses.

Far more tests are needed before the technique could be used on human skin.

First Downloaded and 3D Printed Pirate Bay Ship Arrives
Ernesto
February 5, 2012


For The Pirate Bay team simply copying bits and bytes is not enough. They want you to ‘download a car’, literally, so with that goal in mind they added a 3D-printing section to their website last month. A Gimmick? Not really. Canadian Charles Randall is one of the first to show off his new ‘physible’ Pirate Bay ship, downloaded off BitTorrent and printed in three dimensions. The auto industry is shaking in its boots.

A decade ago people were truly amazed to find out that they could download entire movies using BitTorrent. At the time substantial online video simply didn’t exist, and BitTorrent was an eye opener which has since become the movie industry’s biggest worry.

As one of the older torrent sites around, The Pirate Bay has been at the forefront of this copy revolution. But according to the people behind the torrent site, copying bits is just the beginning. The next step is to download stuff you can hold in your hands.

“We believe that the next step in copying will be made from digital form into physical form. It will be physical objects. Or as we decided to call them: Physibles,” said The Pirate Bay last month when they announced a new 3D printing section of their site.

To give people something to work with, a 3D model of The Pirate Bay ship designed by Todd Blatt was one of the first items put up for download. Since then several people have printed it out and have now become the proud owner of a cute 3D printed ship.

A downloaded copy of The Pirate Bay ship

The copy above belongs to Canadian Charles Randall. After he read the announcement on TorrentFreak he downloaded the torrent and went straight to Shapeways.com to print a copy for personal use.

“I was entertained by telling shapeways.com that I owned the copyright on the design though, something they force you to accept in order to have the model printed. But I guess, in a way, we all do,” Randall told TorrentFreak. “I debated just putting it up for sale on the site, but despite the Pirate Bay sensibilities, I didn’t want to entangle myself in any weird controversy for trying to sell it.”

Unlike regular downloads on BitTorrent, 3D objects come with a hefty price tag. Using the cheapest materials available, 3D pirates have to invest roughly $100 to get their new toy made.

“The raw price was about $80 for the material, $6.50 for the shipping, and then I had to pay $15 in Canadian duties,” Randall said

What this process has in common with copying bytes, is that it can be quite addictive.

“As for doing more 3D printing, I am tempted to learn Blender in order to start making interesting little things,” Randall told us. “The build quality is super detailed and fairly solid. You can see the patterns from where it was printed, but if I were to build small model pieces it would probably be easy enough to sand them down.”

“The whole thing is an amazing process and just knowing it’s possible has opened the floodgates of my imagination.”

The above response of one of the first 3D ‘pirates’ is just what The Pirate Bay were looking for when they launched their new category. Since the announcement the 3D printing category has grown to 26 torrents, ranging from a 3D printable MPAA Boss Chris Dodd to a Teddy Bear.

These are the first steps in discovering a new future that will one day allow people to print a perfect set of sneakers and spare car parts for a few dollars. The auto industry should be very worried.