Checkout the latest Longevity Reporter Newsletter (15th August, 2015), covering this week’s top news in health, aging, longevity
This week: ‘Danielle’ — An Eye Opening Simulation Of The Aging Process; How Does Chronic Inflammation Lead To Cancer?; Low Inflammation and Telomere Maintenance Predict Healthy Longevity; 3-D Printing: Could Downloadable Medicine Be The Future?; And more.
I’m a firm believer that technology can take us to unimaginable places, from both a physical and a mental standpoint. Technological progress is oftentimes cha.
At the end of last year, Made In Space made what was a huge achievement for 3D printing in space by sending their Zero G 3D printer, capable of 3D printing without gravity, to the International Space Station. There, it has 3D printed numerous components, including a now famous wrench and twenty-three other prints that have since returned to Earth for lab analysis. The ability to 3D print without gravity restraints will allow those aboard the ISS to 3D print tools and parts using raw material, preventing the need for direct shipments of such objects from Earth. This ability is an exciting one, but the true goal of NASA and Made In Space has been to 3D print in vacuum of space itself. Today, Made In Space has announced that such a feat has now been proven possible through a series of tests performed here on Earth.
As 3-D printing gains steam and moves beyond plastics, it could be applied to many other industries, revolutionising medicine on the way.
An Ohio based pharmaceutical company Aprecia has now developed a 3-D printing technology which creates a more porous pill structure — allowing higher dose pills to dissolve quicker and making them easier to swallow for some patients. The same technology also allows precise doses to be layered in the same structure. A UCL team have also developed a technique for printing different shapes, which affects drug release.
“For the last 50 years, we have manufactured tablets in factories and shipped them to hospitals, for the first time, this process means we can produce tablets much closer to the patient.”
Researchers are working on a 3D printing pen that will allow surgeons draw regenerative cells onto injured body parts — the Biopen.
Learn about the advancements of a robot that will save lives. The plan? It’s going to produce 3D printed organs and even a fully functional human heart.
UC Berkeley engineers, in collaboration with colleagues at Taiwan’s National Chiao Tung University, have developed a 3D printing process for creating basic electronic components, such as resistors, inductors, capacitors, and integrated wireless electrical sensing systems.
