3D Printing: Game-Changing Technology

Just like the Industrial Revolution and the arrival of the Internet, 3D printing is certain to be a game changer. With the lower cost of the equipment and an increase in printer speed, this technology is now being used for customized, on-demand manufacturing. In the same way that 3D printing is revolutionizing how laboratories fabricate waxups and metal restorations, this technology also has the potential to transform the way we make almost everything.

"Someday, perhaps, printers will revolutionize the world of medicine, churning out hearts, livers and other organs to ease transplantation shortages," writes Henry Fountain in his article, At the Printer, Living Tissue in the ScienceTimes, The New York Times, August 20, 2013. The ability to print organs is decades away so "for now, researchers have set their sights lower. Organovo, for instance, a San Diego company that has developed a bioprinter, is making strips of liver tissue, about 20 cells thick, that it says...