World Watch THAT PRINT JOB OF YOURS IS GOING TO TAKE 14 HOURS — AND YOU CAN MOVE IN NEXT TUESDAY Thanks to engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), erecting buildings could become a far speedier proposition than it is today. Science Robotics reports that engineers have used 3D technology to develop a system that can “print” a building’s basic structure. Typically, 3D printers are limited by their station- ary nature. But this one moves around, so it’s a robot as well as a printer. The system is a tracked vehicle with a large industrial robotic arm. At the large arm’s end is a smaller, precision-motion arm. A prototype dome — 15 feet in diameter, 12 feet high — was recently constructed in less than 14 hours.
LATITUDE
PRINT BOT MIT researchers have designed a system that can 3D print the basic structure of an entire building. Here, it goes to work on a prototype dome. -photo courtesy Steven Keating, Julian Leland, Levi Cai, and Neri Oxman/Mediated Matter Group
SOUNDWAVE PORTAL WOULD IMPROVE BRAIN TREATMENT Mechanical engineers at the
University of California, Riverside have developed a ceramic skull implant to help treat neurological diseases like Parkinson’s and cancer. Ultrasound surgery is relatively new as a treatment for deep brain disorders. Its effectiveness is hampered by how difficult it is to get sound waves to pass through the skull. A typical skull, after all, is six to eight millimetres thick. What to do? Guillermo Aguilar, a professor of mechanical engi- neering, and his team developed a transparent ceramic material that could replace part of the skull — call it a portal for soundwaves. The hard, shatterproof piece is like the ones used in dentistry. The innovation, reported in Advanced Healthcare Materials , would not disturb human tissue and could be used repeatedly.
ENTER BRAIN HERE Developed by a team led by University of California, Riverside, ceramic skull implants like
this one could become gateways to the brain for ultrasound surgery. -photo by David Baillot, UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering
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