Emerging Technologies Part 2

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>.