#3-d printed

[startorialist]

I have saved a very special AAS229 booth vendor for last! The delightfully dorky 3-D printed jewelry of SciChic (aka @sci-chic) has been on our radar for at least a year, and they are now our partner in our first official design collaboration!

Summer and I chose to represent the iconic shapes of the Hubble Space Telescope, the Kepler detectors/field of view, and the JWST segmented primary mirror for our collection. We explained why in an interview with SciChic founder Erin:

Emily: These pieces represent the tools we use to understand the Universe, and as such they’re both a celebration of the remarkable technological achievements we are capable of as a species as well as the big questions we will try to answer with this telescope.

Summer: For the engineer still inside me, these pieces emphasize how amazingly creative we humans are to pull more and more information out of the light the Universe sends to us. Hubble, Kepler, and JWST are phenomenal feats of engineering, each of which has (and will) open(ed) new frontiers of science for us. Holding these designs in my hand reminds me how we reach for the stars even though we’re stuck here on Earth.

Each design is available as plastic earrings (in several colors, including glow-in-the dark!) or a necklace in plastic or one of several metals. In the second photo above I customized my blue plastic HST necklace with a silver Sharpie marker, and it turned out pretty well! Best of all, a portion of the proceeds of sales of this piece will go towards the Young Women's Leadership Network!

–Emily

Full disclosure: vendors paid to be represented at our booth in order for us to cover the costs, but we are only representing awesome vendors!

[sciencenewsforstudents]

3-D printed ‘ghost guns’ pose new challenges for crime-scene investigators

Researchers are analyzing the ballistics of 3-D printed guns and the plastic they leave behind to help forensic scientists track these DIY weapons.

On December 17, 2017, police responded to reports of gunshots at a Phoenix apartment. When Cleophus Cooksey Jr. answered the door, his mother and stepfather were lying on the living room floor, shot dead. Police arrested Cooksey.

The double homicide seemed like an isolated incident, a violent end to a family dispute. But ballistics evidence gathered at the crime scene told an even bigger story.

Firearms leave telltale markings on the bullet and the cartridge case that’s ejected when a pistol or rifle is fired. The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives catalogs these marks in the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network, or NIBIN.

Police had collected cartridge cases from that Phoenix apartment. Within 48 hours, the NIBIN database revealed ballistics matches that linked weapons used in several other murders during the previous three weeks. Cooksey has been charged with killing eight people.

Although not perfect, ballistics evidence helps police pull suspects off the streets. NIBIN has yielded over 110,000 matches since it was launched in 1999. But a new type of gun — made of plastic using 3-D printers — may bring new challenges for forensics experts.

Use of a 3-D printed weapon “would make it very difficult for NIBIN to detect the signature of that weapon,” says Frank Fernandez, a retired police chief based in the Miami area who chairs the firearms committee of the International Association of Chiefs of Police.

Right now, violence involving 3-D printed guns is more of a risk than a reality. The most commonly available 3-D printers, which cost hundreds of dollars, may not print usable guns, and high-end models cost tens of thousands of dollars.

But 3-D printed guns have been confiscated at airport security checkpoints, including a disassembled gun seized July 3 at New York’s LaGuardia Airport. And in February, a Texas man who had been prohibited by a judge from possessing firearms was sentenced to eight years in prison for carrying a hit list and a gun with 3-D printed parts.

As 3-D printers improve and costs come down, some experts worry that more people will decide to print guns. Because knowing how to analyze the evidence 3-D printed guns leave at a crime scene may one day become an important skill, researchers are making and firing plastic guns to figure out the forensics of these DIY weapons.

Parts list The Liberator handgun is built from mostly plastic parts made with a 3-D printer. A metal nail works as a firing pin to set off the internal explosion when the trigger is pulled. Blueprints for the gun were downloaded about 100,000 times within days of their 2013 release.

CREDIT: H. HONSBERGER ET AL/FORENSIC SCIENCE INTERNATIONAL 2018 

[sciencenewsforstudents]

This fish ‘tag’ runs on fish power

Tags that researchers use to track fish can run out of power. A teen from Taiwan invented a tag that converts fish swimming into the electricity needed to keep it running.

PHOENIX, Ariz. — Under the sea, scientists tag fish to track their numbers and learn about the ocean. But those tags have one problem: Their batteries run out of energy. Now, a teen has designed a tag that never loses power as long as its host is alive. All the fish has to do? Just keep swimming.

“I am a big fish fan,” says Huai-pu Chen, 16. “I go fishing and dive almost every day.” Spending so much time around fish, this junior at Keelung Municipal Anle Senior High School in Taiwan began to ponder whether the animals might be able to use their strong swimming for a different type of power.

“When I was little, I saw fish in the ocean. They swam rapidly and energetically and I thought, ‘What if we could use fish to produce energy?’” More recently, Haui-pu wondered if these fish might be able to power the technology in electronic tags.

Scientists tag fish, snakes, sea turtles, whales and more to learn about their lives and the oceans through which they swim. But these tags run on batteries. And batteries don’t last forever.

Explainer: How batteries and capacitors differ

Huai-pu wanted to see if a fish’s swimming could make a longer-lasting battery. He turned to a special ceramic — a hard, brittle material — that is piezoelectric. Such a material can develop an electric charge when it is bent or squeezed. The teen took bands of piezoelectric ceramics and hooked them up to a tiny capacitor — an electrical component that stores energy. The whole device rests in a 3-D-printed plastic case that is shaped like a small arrow.

The teen hooks his tag just below the dorsal fin on a fish’s back. As the animal swims, the motion of the water around that tag bends the ceramic back and forth. This bending action builds up an electric charge that gets stored in the capacitor. A little more swimming, and the tag can light a small bulb, power a thermometer or measure such things as water depth.

[ethereal-w0lf]

My friend 3-D printed me a ferret for my birthday.

I’m kinda tired of 3-D printed stuff at cons but this is a gift and made with the power of friendship.

[littlebigcatchronicals]

[jonat941]

New Army 3-D printing study shows promise for predictive maintenance

New Army 3-D printing study shows promise for predictive maintenance

By U.S. Army CCDC Research Laboratory Public AffairsMay 19, 2020

ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, Md. — Army researchers have discovered a way to monitor the performance of 3-D printed parts, which tend to have imperfections that affect performance in ways traditionally-machined parts do not.

A new study published recently in the International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technologyshowed that…

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[logicalscience]

Scientists create new technique to 3D print heart scaffold

Washington: Researchers from Carnegie Mellon University used soft and living materials to create a biological scaffold, making a step closer to being able to 3D print a full-sized, adult human heart. The study published on Thursday in the journal Science reported the first-of-its-kind technique that could print tissue scaffolds out of a major structural protein in the human body, the Xinhua news agency reported on Friday. Human organs like the heart are built from specialised cells that

https://logicalscience.com/2019/08/scientists-create-new-technique-to-3d-print-heart-scaffold/

[spasticbastard]

38 IMPRESSIVE ITEMS THAT WERE 3-D PRINTED... TIME TO GET A PRINTER

38 IMPRESSIVE ITEMS THAT WERE 3-D PRINTED… TIME TO GET A PRINTER

38 IMPRESSIVE ITEMS THAT WERE 3-D PRINTED… TIME TO GET A PRINTER –

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