Lifeboat Foundation

Finding ways to integrate electronics into living tissue could be crucial for everything from brain implants to new medical technologies. A new approach has shown that it’s possible to 3D print circuits into living worms.

There has been growing interest in finding ways to more closely integrate technology with the human body, in particular when it comes to interfacing electronics with the nervous system. This will be crucial for future brain-machine interfaces and could also be used to treat a host of neurological conditions.

But for the most part, it’s proven difficult to make these kinds of connections in ways that are non-invasive, long-lasting, and effective. The rigid nature of standard electronics means they don’t mix well with the squishy world of biology, and getting them inside the body in the first place can require risky surgical procedures.

A camel cannot go through the eye of a needle. But researchers at ETH Zurich have now achieved something that—figuratively speaking—comes quite close. They have developed a new approach to minimally invasive surgical instruments, allowing large objects to be brought into the body through a narrow catheter. Their demonstration study has been published in the journal Nature Communications.

This works as follows: The researchers disassemble such devices into individual parts and then slide them through the catheter in a row, like a string of pearls. At the end of the catheter, the parts assemble themselves into a predefined shape thanks to built-in magnets.

Continue reading “Self-folding surgical tools fit through a catheter for minimally invasive surgical procedures” »

Technique may enable speedy, on-demand design of softer, safer neural devices.

An Australian team of scientists and engineers invent a tiny, flexible, and soft robotic arm to 3D print biomaterial inside a human body.

The F3DB is a proof-of-concept 3D bioprinter that can be inserted into the body to make repairs to damaged tissue.

The space agency teamed up with university researchers to investigate the best methods for 3D printing space batteries.

A team of researchers at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) and Youngstown State University (YSU) are collaborating to develop 3D-printed batteries for future lunar astronauts.

3D-printed batteries for lunar habitats.

Continue reading “NASA’s Artemis astronauts will likely 3D print batteries on the Moon” »

Relativity Space, a 3D-printing specialist, launched the inaugural flight of its Terran 1 rocket late on Wednesday night, which successfully met some mission objectives before failing to reach orbit.

Terran 1 lifted off from LC-16, a launchpad at the U.S. Space Force’s facility in Cape Canaveral, Florida, and flew for about three minutes. While the rocket cleared a key objective — passing the point of maximum atmospheric pressure during an orbital launch, known as Max Q — its engine sputtered and shut down early, shortly after the second stage separated from the first stage, which is the larger, lower portion of the rocket known as the booster.

Relativity launch director Clay Walker confirmed that there was an “anomaly” with the upper stage. The company said it will give “updates over the coming days” after analyzing flight data.

Car engines, bespoke medicines, organs for transplant, food, fashion and now even a whole street of houses… Is the all-conquering promise of 3D printing finally coming true? By Tim Lewis.

“The goal is for community groups or individual citizens anywhere to be able to measure local air pollution.”

As per an estimation by WHO, air pollution causes around 4 million annual premature deaths all over the globe. Considering this issue, an MIT research team launched an open-source version of an economical, mobile pollution detector through which individuals can track the air-quality more broadly.

The detector, named Flatburn, can be fabricated through 3D printing or by ordering cheap parts. The researchers have now conducted tests and calibrated the detector concerning existing ultra-modern machines and are making people aware of how to assemble, use, and interpret the data.

Continue reading “Low-cost device can measure air pollution anywhere” »

Up until now, it was still infamously difficult to include sensors in 3D designs.

Engineers might be able to create smart hinges that can detect when a door has been opened or gears inside motors that can communicate their rotational speed to a mechanic by integrating sensors into rotational systems.

Even while improvements in 3D printing allow for the quick manufacture of rotational devices, it is still infamously difficult to include sensors in the designs.

Continue reading “Revolutionary 3D-printed devices utilize advanced sensing technology” »