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by mark_integerdsv 4107 days ago
What is the precision and how small can an object be? How small can the printer be? Can we make nanoprinters that are controlled from the cloud to mutate the models they create as necessary?

Nanovaccines that can change in response to mutating threats...

I feel like I have understood the importance of 3D printing for the very first time which makes sense, I have tended to be a little slow.
1 comments
samch 4106 days ago
It's interesting that you ask about nanovaccines in relation to this article. The lead inventor and CEO on this project also founded another company that works in that exact area [1].

As to the precision of Carbon3D, the best I can figure based on their recent publication is printed layers as small as 1µm. That's pretty darn good resolution for a 3D printer.

1. http://www.liquidia.com/

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mark_integerdsv 4104 days ago
That is interesting. Thank you.

I found this whole thread very exciting, I as down-voted into oblivion very quickly so I stopped sharing my thoughts but my mind ran on for a while...

Self-healing machines, buildings and devices also sprang to mind.

Basically, if the printer is small enough to be a part of the object and there were a way of determining what it needs to print then the object need never be broken (for very long) in fact: the object doesn't even need to be defined as a cup, a pair of trousers, a bicycle. If the printer can embed itself into anything it prints then it could literally morph according to a given requirement.

...I'll stop now.

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