October 13, 2014

“‘What’s with the jungle gym?’ It really has been something, fun and Martian-looking” (Doctorow 100)

“Standing there amid the whirl and racket and undulating motion of the jungle gym as it reconfigured itself, she felt like she’d arrived at some posthuman future where the world no longer needed her or her kind. Like humanity’s creations had evolved past their inventors” (Doctorow 102).

Inspired by a conversation in Week 3 CST lab with Katie H:

What is an idea beyond the physical formation? I find myself questioning the value of the simple three-dimensional shapes that we use to begin all ideas in Tinkercad. In particular, the torus: the blue doughnut holds the same patterns as the Flower of Life. How can these patterns teach us the reality of other things? Intuition is an idea beyond physical formation; it evolves past invention. Katie asks, “How can you create something alive that responds to it’s environment?”
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Meanwhile, Daniel is wearing an earring he 3D printed. Its pattern reminds me of Borromean rings: circles intersecting one another in a way that seems to supercede human touch.

Click here to view the embedded video.

 … 

“‘How come no girls?’ ~*Suzanne
‘Girls aren’t interested in this stuff, lady’ ~*Jason
‘You think?’ There was a time when she would have objected, but it was better to let these guys say it out loud, hear themselves say it.” (Doctorow 94)

In performing the role of “ethnographer” for the first time I found myself to be ease. It felt somehow comforting to assume this role that I was given and told to act out… but why is it that I felt this way? Reflecting on it now, it seems so strange to me how effortless it was to perform the task of quietly observing and documenting others… but then, yet again, why does it only feel strange once I being to reflect? Are we not always quiet observers, silently documenting inside our minds? It is interesting to consider the ways in which I have been doing this work all my life.

“Put the notebook away, Suzanne, please?” ~*Kettlewell (Doctorow 87)

3d printing of composite calcium phosphate and collagen scaffolds for bone regeneration

Article review by John Grieco

            This week’s post is a review of a primary research article I found relevant to our program and is a great example of making something that matters.  As many of you have figured out, the task of making something meaningful is not easy.  Also, you are the only judge of what is meaningful to you, no one can tell you that what you make this quarter isn’t meaningful or doesn’t matter.  With that said, I have come to the conclusion that for me, making something that has a positive impact on someone or something else i.e. the Environment, seems to be the most meaningful way of creation.  Not only does this week’s primary research article address how 3d printing can be applied in the medical field but also the possibilities of alternative filament.  I know many of you have expressed the want to make and use alternative filaments and I hope that this post will further inspire you.

The article in review examines the possible use of low temperature 3d printing of a custom filament made from calcium phosphate and collagen to produce synthetic bone graft alternatives.  The authors hoped that their efforts would improve the current techniques used for bone grafts and bone implants.  The technique of 3d printing used in this experiment is similar to what we are familiar with when using the makerbot in that individual layers create the object.  Their process differs with the type of printer and material used.

The printer used is a ZPrinter 450 and the material this printer requires is in the form of a very fine powder.  The ZPrinter 450 was modified to print a mixture of calcium phosphate and an acidic binding solution.  Calcium phosphate is a bioceramic used in reconstructive surgery due to its biocompatibility and similarities to real bone. After designing the specific bone replacement using 3d modeling software similar to what we are using this quarter, the part is processed and then coated in collagen.  Collagen is used to promote cell growth of the human cells cultured on the surface of the 3d printed object.  The authors also discovered that by adding collagen to the calcium phosphate and binding material before printing increased cell viability and strength of the final object.

The newly created artificial bones, in this case a femur, were used to replace broken femurs on a number of mice.  The mice then were monitored over a nine-week healing period and then euthanized so that their tissues could be harvested and then analyzed.  The results of this study found that the new technique used for generating bone scaffolds did not produce artificial bone that was sufficiently osteoinductive.  Meaning that the new 3d printed bone material did not react adequately with the actual bone of the subject’s body and was not able to completely heal.

I am interested in the future application of 3d printing in the medical field and studies like this are continually pushing the technology towards new ways of helping one another.  Attached is a video of the printer our author’s used in their experiment and how it differs from the printing we are familiar with.

Click here to view the embedded video.

This week I learned more about the importance of the 3D printer concerning how it will make new connections between mind and reality. For example in class I saw that one guy was able to draw an image on his computer and move the image so that it would be on the object that he was printing. Another guy was taking an idea that he had in his head and was making it on tinkercad. But most importantly I learned more about the correlation between trade and 3D printing. The connection being that in a world where 3D printer’s abilities have expanded and everyone has one trade will decrease and with it the connection between nations. I have yet to fully realize what that could mean.

This week, the class appeared to be more proficient in tinkercad, even to the point that some had developed prototypical iterations of their blue rabbit projects. The most impressive prototype had to be Steph’s vase, which was rendered with hexagons instead of triangles. Despite being unable to hold water, the printer’s flaws were easily recognizable and even workable into something productive. In the following week of coin making, it appears that the formula for the optimal coin involves the temperature veing between 190 C and 210 C. I am determined to figure out a way around the porousness of the material for future projects as demonstrated by Steph’s vase. As for my chain mail prototype: the temperature needs to be lowered and I need to find an alternative to circles being rendered via triangle patterns.