The year 2012 brought several new technologies to the table,
but what about 2013? It was a huge accomplishment to have laser printers, but
now they are making 3-D bio printers too! Right along with 3-D printers,
however, are self-healing materials.
3-D Bio printers are going to be the
next big thing in medical science. All bio printers, currently, are only
experimental but eventually they will make it so we will no longer need organ
donors when a sick person is in need. These printers construct human organs by
layering living cells in a specific pattern to match a person’s heart, lung,
liver, etc. In addition to layering cells, bio printers also use a dissolving
gel to support and protect cells that are being printed.
Along with being able to print
organs for medical purposes, bio printers should eventually be able to be a
part in cosmetic applications. People could, for example, have a 3-D image of
their face as a teenager then at age 40 have that face re-applied to achieve a
youthful look. If a person was not happy with how their face looked, they could
also have another person’s face printed onto theirs. However, everything has a
consequence. People have the opportunity to completely change how they look, so
if a criminal had this done there wouldn’t be an easy way to catch the person.
Also, if someone looked exactly like another person, they could frame the
actual person. That would be the negative side of 3-D bio printing.
Another emerging technology of 2013
are self-healing materials. This new technology should allow for machines in
remote or inaccessible places to stay operative. The US firm Autonomic
Materials has been working toward making self-healing coatings, sealants, and
adhesives. These are based on microcapsule technologies which have been shown
to allow electrical circuits to repair themselves. People are predicting that
the first self-healing materials open to the public will be mostly for ships,
boats, and docks to protect metal materials used. They are currently only going
to be for marine use because the materials heal without the use of oxygen.
New technology can be scary and
exciting at the same time. The thought of being able to print off a working
heart for a person without an organ donor is amazing! However, thinking of
someone trying to exactly replicate your face onto their own is a very scary
thing. Self-healing materials don’t have any major draw-backs, except the face
that people could lose jobs. If machines are one-hundred percent
self-sufficient then any person in the maintenance field won’t have to go fix
things, and therefore unemployed. Upcoming technology will bring a whole new
way of life but hopefully we, the human race, will be able to adapt to these
drastic changes.
Works Cited
Hume, Tim.
"Heal thyself: The 'bio-inspired' materials that self-repair." CNN
Tech. Progressive
Insurance, 22 Feb. 2013. Web. 22 Mar. 2013.
<http://www.cnn.com/2013/02/22/tech/self-healing-materials>.
Barnatt, Christopher.
"Bioprinting." Explaining The Future. N.p., 2013. Web. 22 Mar. 2013.
<http://www.explainingthefuture.com/bioprinting.html>.
