Scientists have built the world’s first biological ‘teleporter’
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF We have reached the point where we can digitise life itself, albeit at a micro scale, and that opens up a whole host of new opportunities, from being able to create bespoke synthetic organisms to teleporting life across the universe. The chance of a...
Futurist keynote, Dubai: The Future of Minds &Machines, Dubai IAICC International Innovation Conference
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Dubai is a city that was gifted nothing, and had to build and earn everything, and it was a great honour to speak there, in a place that is rapidly becoming the very embodiment of the future. Dubai Dubai so good they named it...
Breakthrough in 3D printing with bacteria could revolutionise global manufacturing
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF In many ways bacteria are nature’s factories, and with a bit of genetic tweaking they can be seconded to help print revolutionary new drugs, materials and products A team of researchers at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands have pioneered an inexpensive method for...
The first Mars colony will be 3D printed from Martian dust
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF The colossal distances involved in getting to Mars means that shipping equipment to Mars will be an expensive herculean effort so experts want everything to be made in situ A new 3D printing technique could let the first humans on Mars print everything from...
World first, Dubai announces it will 3D print an 80 storey skyscraper in 2020
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Company’s have begun 3D printing houses and small buildings, but noone, until now, has laid out plans to 3D print an entire skyscraper. UAE’s ruler, His Highness Sheikh’s Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, has a grand vision for Dubai. He wants to turn Dubai into the city...
PassivDom can 3D print you a $32,000 house in eight hours
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As 3D printing techniques improve we’ll see more house builders embrace the technology to build bigger and better homes faster and cheaper than they do today. Building a house by hand can be both time consuming and expensive, which is why more and more...
3D printed cartilage breakthrough offers millions of suffers new hope
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Cartilage is unique in that it doesn’t grow back, leaving Arthritis patients, and cancer and injury victims with no option but surgery, now though 3D bioprinting offers them all new hope. Loosing a part of your body, such as an ear, knee or a...
Adidas unveils their first 3D printed mass market sneaker
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF 3D printing will usher in a new era of on demand, personalised clothing that will revolutionise products, supply chains, and companies. Adidas, who recently made a sneaker from recycled ocean plastic, and other clothing manufacturers have been experimenting with new ways to manufacture their...
Solar powered artificial skin gives prosthetics a sense of touch
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Many amputees complain of “Phantom limb” syndrome but now a new breakthrough could help them finally feel again, for real. UK researchers have developed a synthetic skin for prosthetic limbs that can generate power and return the sense of touch to amputees. Researchers from...
Housing company Apis Cor is 3D printing new houses in a day
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF In the past building a house could take weeks, sometimes months, but new 3D printing technology is changing the paradigm. If you’re looking to move but can’t find the house of your dreams, you may be able to just print one out for yourself....
The US Army just 3D printed a grenade launcher and grenades
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF 3D printing will let armies print bespoke weapons and equipment out in the field on demand and change military supply chains, and warfare forever. 3D printing has come a long way, companies are using it to print new buildings and sneakers, doctors are using...
The Terminator bought to life, researchers want to put artificial human skin onto robots
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Robots with human skin are nothing new, at least in sci-fi terms, but we now have the technology and a reason to make it happen… This week researchers Pierre-Alexis Mouthuy and Andrew Carr from the University of Oxford announced that they believe robots dressed...
Scientists have 3D printed functioning artificial human skin
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Being able to print artificial human skin, on demand will change the lives of burns victims and reduce the need for animal testing. A few months after Stanford University announced it had created the world’s first artificial skin substitute, now researchers in Spain have...
Scientists 3D print an Eagle eye camera that’s smaller than a human hair
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF There are plenty of devices today that are too small, or lack the computing power to accommodate a traditional camera, new micro-cameras overcome all those issues. It seems that you can’t go anywhere nowadays without a camera tracking you but as ubiquitous as they...
Conservationists are saving coral reefs, one 3D printed coral at a time
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF With more coral bleaching events becoming more common, and increasingly severe, conservations are struggling to preserve some of the world’s finest reefs. A lot has changed since Fabien Cousteau’s grandfather Jacques started teaching about marine conservation in the 1950s, for a start we’re using...
New micro-rocket will one day travel round your body fighting disease
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Miniaturised rockets that can travel around your body at will, tracking and tackling disease, repairing tissue and looking for the early signs of cancer would usher in a healthcare revolution. In the 1980’s one of the decade’s most popular films was one called “Innerspace” where...
NASA wants to turn asteroids into spacecraft
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Turning an asteroid into a spacecraft sounds easy, but it isn’t, however, thanks to 3D printing and some brainy experts we could see the first asteroid spacecraft appear in the 2030’s. The concept of mining things in space, whether it’s mining the Moon for...
Norwegian robot learns to self-evolve and 3D print itself in the lab
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF For the first time we are seeing how it’s possible for robots in the future to design and evolve, manufacture and assemble themselves without human input. Experts at the University of Oslo, Norway have discovered a new way for robots to design, evolve and manufacture...
Under Armour’s new trainers are inspired by nature, designed by an AI and 3D printed
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF The rise of a new breed of creative machines is helping companies design and iterate new products at an accelerating rate, couple these together with new manufacturing techniques and we’ll soon be on the cusp of another manufacturing revolution. The next pair of trainers...
Soldiers digital twins let US Army 3D print replacement body parts in battle
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Thousands of soldiers are injured in battle every year, now the US Army is scanning, digitising and creating digital twins of its soldiers that will let field medics 3D print new body parts in the field that could save their lives. The US military...
