Well, perhaps just a few lives. Here is a positive development in what is
rapidly becoming a game changer for manufacturing and health care, and this
is just the start:

BABY'S LIFE SAVED WITH GROUNDBREAKING 3-D PRINTED DEVICE THAT RESTORED HIS
 BREATHING
A bioresorbable splint has been created and used for first time at the 
University of Michigan, where doctors implanted the device in an infant
and stopped a life-threatening condition called tracheobronchomalacia.
-- full story > http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/05/130522180102.htm

2 Comments

1. 

   3-D printing is cute but it is very limited in practice. It is good at creating open-work frames in plastic which can sometimes be useful in medicine, as here. It value to the World as compared,say,to Google is orders of magnitude less.

   Comment by John Robertson — May 27, 2013 @ 10:00 am

2. 

   3D printing is going to change manufacturing as much as the internet has changed commerce. Just wait til it blends with bio-tech and watch the revolution unfold.

   Aside from malicious uses (such as printing guns) it is already making ‘mass customisation’ more widly useful.

   I’m interested from the view of the arts, and reproducing sculpture, bespoke designs, and much more.

   Comment by ronda jambe — May 27, 2013 @ 3:30 pm

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