history

What is PLA?

Novice 3D printer operators often wonder, “what is the PLA that I am printing?”

Women In Science: Historical Antecedents

Charles R. Goulding reflects on “The Secret History of Home Economics” and the history of trailblazing women making an impact in science and technology.

Through a Scanner Fails, Then Succeeds

You might recall the Kickstarter project of one Cosmo Wenman of San Diego, who attempted to raise funds for a project to produce freely downloadable printable 3D scans of famous sculptures. Wenman required funds to arrange for travel and working expenses, but the fundraising campaign failed, having raised only USD$8,174 of the target USD$35,000. Sigh,… Continue reading Through a Scanner Fails, Then Succeeds

Ancient Tudor Sculptures 3D Printed

First they were 3D scanned, then they were 3D printed.   Researchers at the University of Leicester, University of Oxford and Yale worked together to replicate a tomb monument originally designed for King Henry VIII’s illegitimate son, Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Richmond by Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk in the 16th century.    You… Continue reading Ancient Tudor Sculptures 3D Printed

3D Printing The Radioactive Bomber Cam

Fabbaloo friend Patrick Letourneau recently completed a unique photography project enabled by 3D printing. The Bomber Cam is a hybrid camera made from an actual (and radioactive) World War II bomber camera lens and a modern GH2 digital camera.    Somehow Letourneau obtained the ancient camera, which was originally strapped to the bottom of World… Continue reading 3D Printing The Radioactive Bomber Cam

A Whale of a 3D Print

It was near the end of a South American expedition for Smithsonian Natural History Museum’s Nicholas D. Pyenson, when he learned fossil whales had been uncovered nearby.    Examining the fossils, which had been uncovered by a road crew constructing a new highway across the Atacama Desert, Pyenson discovered the fossils were of a dozen… Continue reading A Whale of a 3D Print

King’s Resting Place Recreated by 3D Printing

By all accounts, King Richard III’s reign was relatively unproductive.  Modern historians believe that this was mostly due to the dynastic struggle that we now know as the Wars of the Roses, of which Richard III’s house came out on the losing end.   As is always true, the victors are afforded the opportunity to… Continue reading King’s Resting Place Recreated by 3D Printing

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Rapid Prototyping Reveals Evolutionary Clues

Over at Scientific American’s Observations blog, Kate Wong has an interesting piece about paleoanthropologists using 3D printers to help recreate the skeleton of one of humanity’s ancestors.   Australopithecus sediba, a “nearly two million-year-old” member of Homo Sapien’s evolutionary lineage was discovered at the Malapa Fossil Site in South Africa.  Like most fossils, the bones… Continue reading Rapid Prototyping Reveals Evolutionary Clues

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Saving The Past With The Future

Peter at RepRap Central tells a story some of us have lived through, although not nearly as dramatic. The story involves Malcolm Messiter, whose decades-old Robert Goble Harpsichord required some maintenance. Specifically, the string-plucking jacks, made of Delrin, were cracking and needed to be replaced. Worse, there were some 183 such jacks in the harpsichord. … Continue reading Saving The Past With The Future