Nanoengineers Can Print 3-D Microstructures in Mere Seconds

[xchrom]

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/09/120913162710.htm

ScienceDaily (Sep. 13, 2012) — Nanoengineers at the University of California, San Diego have developed a novel technology that can fabricate, in mere seconds, microscale three dimensional (3D) structures out of soft, biocompatible hydrogels. Near term, the technology could lead to better systems for growing and studying cells, including stem cells, in the laboratory. Long-term, the goal is to be able to print biological tissues for regenerative medicine. For example, in the future, doctors may repair the damage caused by heart attack by replacing it with tissue that rolled off of a printer.

Reported in the journal Advanced Materials, the biofabrication technology, called dynamic optical projection stereolithography (DOPsL), was developed in the laboratory of NanoEngineering Professor Shaochen Chen. Current fabrication techniques, such as photolithography and micro-contact printing, are limited to generating simple geometries or 2D patterns. Stereolithography is best known for its ability to print large objects such as tools and car parts. The difference, says Chen, is in the micro- and nanoscale resolution required to print tissues that mimic nature's fine-grained details, including blood vessels, which are essential for distributing nutrients and oxygen throughout the body. Without the ability to print vasculature, an engineered liver or kidney, for example, is useless in regenerative medicine. With DOPsL, Chen's team was able to achieve more complex geometries common in nature such as flowers, spirals and hemispheres. Other current 3D fabrication techniques, such as two-photon photopolymerization, can take hours to fabricate a 3D part.

?1347568284
NanoEngineering Professor Shaochen Chen has demonstrated the capability of printing three-dimensional blood vessels in mere seconds out of soft, biocompatible hydrogels. Being able to print blood vessels is essential to achieving the promise of regenerative medicine because it is how the body distributes oxygen and nutrients. (Credit: Biomedical Nanotechnology Laboratory, Chen Research Group, UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering)

[eomer]

1. How many nanoengineers does it take?

And how small is a nanoengineer?

[mopinko]

2. 1/1,000,000th of a regular engineer. nt

[TheMadMonk]

3. 1,000,000,000 /nt

[marble falls]

4. This will be very helpful to build a lifesize model of Mitt's conscience.

[Scuba]

5. Are you certain he has one?

[marble falls]

6. We'll never know without a complete search. A large probe and an electron scanning mocroscope....

may well be required. Maybe it will be revealed at the debates.

[triplepoint]

7. Shades and Inklings of Dune's Axlotl Tanks

and of course, James Cameron's "Terminator" movies.

The Axlotl tanks or Axolotl tanks were living organisms within the Original Dune series and Axlotl technology is also mentioned, but not elaborated upon, in Frank Herbert's novels Destination: Void and the The Jesus Incident. Axlotl tanks are the means by which the Bene Tleilax reproduce a living human being from the cells of a cadaver, a type of cloning called a ghola as well as the creation of genetically engineered assassins known as Face Dancers. Later in the series, the axlotl tanks are engineered to replicate the spice Melange, previously only available on the desert planet Arrakis where it is created naturally as part of the life cycle of giant Sandworms.

The Bene Gesserit suspected that the axlotl tanks were what remained of female Tleilaxu, since no Tleilaxu females had ever been seen. Moreover, the Reverend Mother Darwi Odrade, during the time of the Honored Matres, had declared to Tleilaxu Master Tylwyth Waff that neither she nor any of her sisters would become an axlotl tank. This remark elicited shock from the Master, a reaction that indicated that the Bene Gesserit suspicion was true, especially since he did not deny it.

Genetic information could be coded into those bred in axlotl tanks. As a result, the resulting organisms could be bred for certain aptitudes, skills, and reflexes.

Despite the revulsion axlotl tanks caused in many groups and cultures, by the time the Honored Matres had conquered the planets of the Old Imperium, the Bene Gesserit had adopted them for the creation of gholas to further their cause.

Reference Link:
http://dune.wikia.com/wiki/Axlotl_Tanks