They say the mosquito proboscis has a 20 μm inner diameter, "100% finer" than commercial alternatives (presumably meaning half the diameter). Not having read the paper, I'm guessing it can't handle 210° molten PLA.

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PetitPrince 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

From the paper:

> The ink used for the proof of extrusion demonstration is a ready-to-use, polyethylene oxide–based training bioink purchased and used directly from the vendor (Cellink Start, Cellink)

> The ink used for the honeycomb demonstration and the maple leaf demonstration is a sacrificial, temperature-sensitive, 40% (w/v) Pluronic F-127 in deionized water bioink purchased and used directly from the vendor (Pluronic F-127, Allevi).

> The ink used for the first cell-laden grid demonstration is Pluronic F-127 bioink with B16 cancer cells suspended in solution.

> The ink used for the second cell-laden grid demonstration is Pluronic F-127 bioink embedded with RBCs.

> The ink used for the cell viability experiments is Pluronic F-127 bioink with B16 cancer cells suspended in solution.

	▲	kragen 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Aha, thanks! That makes a lot of sense.

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nbadg 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

From TFA, they're using it to print bioinks. Think scaffolding for cell cultures.

At these kinds of physical scales, biology is almost certainly a much larger market than mechanical applications. A 20 um line width (slightly less than one thou for US folks) is certainly a tolerance you might encounter on a drawing for subtractive manufacturing, but for addative, feature sizes that small will be strength limited.

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kragen 2 hours ago | parent [-]

Mechanical applications at that scale are not well developed, but that doesn't mean their potential is small.

Member sizes below the critical diameter for flaw-sensitivity are crucial to the hardness and durability of, for example, human teeth and limpet teeth, as well as the resilience of bone and jade. Nearly all metals, glasses, and ceramics are limited to a tiny percentage of their theoretical mechanical performance by flaw-sensitivity.

Laparoscopes that require smaller incisions are better laparoscopes. Ideally you could thread in a biopsy-needle instrument through a large vein to almost anywhere in the body.

Visible-light optical metamaterials such as negative-index lenses require submicron feature sizes.

I know a research group that is gluing battery-powered RFID transponders to honeybees.

Electrophoretic e-paper displays are orders of magnitude more power-hungry than hypothetical MEMS flip-dot displays. We just don't have an economical way to make those.

And of course MEMS gyroscopes, accelerometers, and DLP chips are already mass-market products.

There's still a lot of room at the bottom, even if EUV takes thetakes purely computational opportunities off the table.

	▲	BlaDeKke 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		I can’t wait for MEMS flip-dot displays.

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denkmoon 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

"They mounted the mosquito proboscis on a standard dispensing tip and used it to deposit specialized bioinks.", "They then successfully printed bioscaffolds used to support cell growth and high-resolution microstructures".

Tissue-printing type stuff, not plastic