Notre Dame Researchers 3D Print Small Animal Skeletons From CT Scans of Live Pets
…”3D Printing of Preclinical X-ray Computed Tomographic Data Sets” outlined by a team of Notre Dame students and a rep from MakerBot certainly beats getting your pet’s face printed on a sweater.
The researchers have outlined a method for CT scanning live mice, rats and rabbits and printing out their skeletal structures in plastic. There are some cool research applications for such functionality, but more importantly, who could ask for a creepier gift for the pet owner in your life?
(via Notre Dame students highlight method for 3D printing skeletons of living animals)
MakerBot Opens World’s First Brick-and-Mortar Retail 3D Printing Store
MakerBot, the unofficial leader of the hobbyist 3-D printing movement, is putting the finishing touches on a consumer store located in the posh Manhattan neighborhood of NoHo.
Sure, the rare 3-D printer can be found in the corners of business service centers across the United States. But MakerBot claims their location at 298 Mulberry Street is the first one in the country dedicated to selling 3-D printers, supplies for the machines, and bespoke objects printed on-location.
If the new business proves successful, 3-D printing stands to expand from a relatively high-cost hobbyist venture into a mainstream consumer market.
“This is the first retail 3-D printing store” in the United States, said spokesperson Jenny Lawton from inside the shop. “We haven’t combed the world over, but we’re pretty sure it’s the first … of its kind.”
(via First 3-D Printing Store Opens In U.S. | Popular Science)
Metropolitan Museum Taps Makerbot To Scan And Print Collection
A June 1 hackathon brought a group of artists and hackers together at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art where they 3D scanned a number of well-known pieces of art. The work is now appearing on Thingiverse where you can download and print things like the head and shoulders of a sphinx and Bather by Jean-Antoine Houdon.
Makerbot CEO Bre Pettis wrote:
When I started Thingiverse, I knew that I wanted the classic sculptures of the world to be in the universal library of things, but I imagined that someone would have to pull off the ultimate heist to make that happen. Instead of having to steal the art, the Met shares the future vision of MakerBot where the greatest artworks of the world are accessible to everyone and they’ve invited us in to make history and share the art with the world.
The project, which is now ongoing, led to the Capture Your Town initiative which encourages makers to wander the streets of their cities, 3D scanning cool stuff willy-nilly.
I find this whole system – a sort of guerrilla curation – fascinating and amazingly important. Art is meant to be shared and like MIT’s open classroom initiatives and public domain book projects, this initiative gives things that may moulder on shelves and in out-of-the-way museums new life. While the reproductions aren’t as beautiful as the originals (yet), 3D printing is only getting better and it’s only a matter of time before we can beautify our homes and lives with art, design, and architecture from around the world.
(ht unexpectedtech)
