Scientists Build 3D Printer for Tiny Nano-Models

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Now this is quite an amazing tech!
Just as a rough eyeball measurement, I estimate that each line on their print is 2µm wide (roughly 50µm width and looks like 25 lines in that space).

Just think about that for a second.
With just a little tweaking I would expect they could reduce each trace to 1.5µm, at which point they could essentially print a 386 Processor!

Really though, medical applications are the most promising for this.
Break a bone? Major laceration? Major surgery?
Just 'print' it back together for a cleaner and faster recovery!
 
Couldn't they print 3D computer chips with this printer instead of cpu slices?
 
[citation][nom]pabeader[/nom]Anybody else notice the date stamp on the picture? 2010?[/citation]

That's the date the printer started printing.... just finished 🙂
 
[citation][nom]pabeader[/nom]Anybody else notice the date stamp on the picture? 2010?[/citation]

Research takes a long time.
Patents take a long time.
Getting Published takes a long time.

Especially when there is no immediate commercial application.
 
Replicators! This is a direct lead to Star Trek style replicators! I love it!

When these become fast enough and cheap enough, they'll replace small circuits, leading to custom circuitry, leading to more sophisticated versions, leading to handling multiple materials, leading to more sophisticated versions, leading to producing full electronic devices, leading to more sophisticated versions, leading to producing other types of items, leading to producing food, leading to lower poverty rates, leading to a better world. I love it! We'll have warp drive and phasers in 5 generations with this technology! The future is back!
 
I really hope it will become possible to make LEGO blocks this way.

They have to be made with an accuracy of +/-0.5µm or they won't fit nicely.
(That's the difference between the real LEGO blocks and the knock off's that never fit right.)
 
[citation][nom]annymmo[/nom]I really hope it will become possible to make LEGO blocks this way.They have to be made with an accuracy of +/-0.5µm or they won't fit nicely.(That's the difference between the real LEGO blocks and the knock off's that never fit right.)[/citation]

You want to take something that can create on the nanoscale and use it to better the lives of all humanity via - improved Lego blocks?
 
[citation][nom]jkflipflop98[/nom]You want to take something that can create on the nanoscale and use it to better the lives of all humanity via - improved Lego blocks?[/citation]

I'm sorry, but printing your own lego blocks is pretty BA in my opinion, but i agree it can be helpful in medical fields. That of course isn't the only application, we all could find uses for 3D printing eventually with how fast it's progressing.
 
[citation][nom]dgingeri[/nom]Replicators! This is a direct lead to Star Trek style replicators! I love it!When these become fast enough and cheap enough, they'll replace small circuits, leading to custom circuitry, leading to more sophisticated versions, leading to handling multiple materials, leading to more sophisticated versions, leading to producing full electronic devices, leading to more sophisticated versions, leading to producing other types of items, leading to producing food, leading to lower poverty rates, leading to a better world. I love it! We'll have warp drive and phasers in 5 generations with this technology! The future is back![/citation]I love your (hopefully) intentional ridiculous jumps in technology. Being able to print food, of course, doesn't feed people. But I do love the potential in terms of 3D circuitry or using the tools created with this method to make tools that can do this even better.
 
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