As with every rocketing technology, 3D printing has created inevitable problems. Drugs, knifes, guns and even ATM skimmers have been made with the revolutionary new robots. But the favourable benefits of 3D printing outweigh the illegal side of the business: which brings us to 3D printed bones. Scientists are applying 3D printing technology to the medicinal industry by "printing" custom body parts with living cells. With a system feeding bone defects into a computer, the break or fracture is replaced precisely using the patient's own cells, and can then be implanted anywhere in the body. The printer's "ink" is polylactic acid and a gel-like substance called alginate which give the strength to the bone as well as cushioning for the cells. The artificial scaffold will then degrade and be replaced by new real bone within around three months. Build-a-Bone factory!
