This is great, even with all the caveats around it.
Some people can't currently afford real prosthetics, and they're stuck with things like "Soda Bottle Prosthetics" which is a neat hack, but decidedly suboptimal.
Compare that to the teen who asked a Formula One team to help with a false arm (they didn't provide any money, but they helped with fundraising and engineering and now he has an amazing arm) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yvev6shNvSg
Medical use of 3d printing is exciting. Even if it's a bit odd. Here's an advert which shows researchers looking at 3d printed proteins to understand protein folding better. The proteins look cute. They could probably sell a version of these as Mr Potato head style toys.
Some people can't currently afford real prosthetics, and they're stuck with things like "Soda Bottle Prosthetics" which is a neat hack, but decidedly suboptimal.
http://blog.makezine.com/2009/02/05/plastic-soda-bottle-pros...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yvev6shNvSg
Compare that to the teen who asked a Formula One team to help with a false arm (they didn't provide any money, but they helped with fundraising and engineering and now he has an amazing arm) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yvev6shNvSg
Medical use of 3d printing is exciting. Even if it's a bit odd. Here's an advert which shows researchers looking at 3d printed proteins to understand protein folding better. The proteins look cute. They could probably sell a version of these as Mr Potato head style toys.
http://www.3dsystems.com/learning-center/case-studies/nation...
That same company do a bunch of medical 3d printers (http://www.3dsystems.com/3d-printers/professional/overview#h...) and they have an entry on Transmaterial about their printer than can use powders as fine as 3 microns. It can build layers of 10 microns. (http://transmaterial.net/phenix-px/)