3D printing of bacteria into functional complex materials

A team from the ETH in Zurich and the University College in Dublin has been able to demonstrate a 3D printing approach to create bacteria-derived functional materials by combining the natural diverse metabolism of bacteria with the shape design freedom of additive manufacturing.

They have developed a biocompatible hydrogel with optimized rheological properties that allows for the immobilization of bacteria into 3D-printed architectures at a high accuracy. They have demonstrated two applications: degrading environmental toxins, and making cellulose, which can be used as scaffolds for skin replacements and coatings for biomedical devices that help protect patients against organ rejection.

Immobilization of Pseudomonas putida, a known phenol degrader, when printed allows to degrade phenol into biomass, showing the potential of the 3D bacteria printing platform for biotechnological applications. Immobilization of Acetobacter xylinum in a predesigned 3D matrix enables the in situ formation of bacterial cellulose scaffolds on nonplanar surfaces, relevant for personalized biomedical applications.

Science Advances 01 Dec 2017: Vol. 3, no. 12, eaao6804 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aao6804

Extending the printer gamut upwards

Full color printing started with cyan, magenta, and yellow. Then black was added to extend the gamut down in the shadows. Later spot colors were added to make the gamut wider (Hexachrome, Indichrome, etc.). Now Romain Rossier & Roger David Hersch are adding light fluorescent magenta and yellow to extend the gamut up in the light colors. They are presenting their work at the CIC 20^th Conference in Hollywood in the Friday afternoon session on Printing chaired by Jan Allebach. Of course, the slides are limited by the projector's gamut, so you need to be there and look at the actual prints.

Red Lips

Sometimes the news are old news. For example, in today's late night World News broadcast, NHK had a piece on a new lipstick technology presented last September at the International Federation of Societies of Cosmetic Chemists congress in Buenos Aires by Tomoko Ikeda of the Shiseido Research Center.

Current lipstick consists of a pigment suspended in a polymer. As the polymer dries out, the pigment easily transfers to other surfaces, like for example a mug. According to the news piece, Tomoko Ikeda mixed in the suspension a second polymer locking in place the pigments.

In patent-speak: Disclosed is a lip cosmetic which has a good gloss and a high stability while continuously being free from secondary stickiness after application. Specifically disclosed is a lip cosmetic characterized by comprising: (a) 4.5 to 35 mass% of glycerol monoisostearate; (b) 20 to 80 mass% of one or more kinds of methyl phenyl silicones which are not separated out when mixed with the component (a) at 90ºC but separated out when mixed with the component (a) at 25ºC; (c) 5 mass% or more, relative to the component (a), of water and/or 24 mass% or less, relative to the total cosmetic, of glycerol; and (d) 4 to 10 mass% of a wax.

World's First Plant-Derived Color Toner

Kyocera Mita Corp. has developed a color toner for multifunction printers that is made from resin gleaned from rice husks, palm kernel shells and other discarded plant materials and adds pigments to a resin base. For the new product, it developed a base that contains a 30% mixture of polyester resins derived from plant fibers. By making partial use of the plant-derived resin, the new color toner has a 30% smaller carbon footprint when the spent cartridges are incinerated. Rivals such as Ricoh Co. already sell mono-chrome toner made using such resins, but Kyocera Mita will be the first in the world to market a color toner product from the material.

[Source: Science & Technology News from Japan, Swiss Science & Technology Office Tokyo]

Photorealistic ink-jet printing

Most scientific papers are written according to a rigid structure that can be traced back to the Iraqi scientist Abu Ali al-Hasan ibn al-Haytham (965–1039), known in Europe under his Latinized name Alhazen. Alhazen proposed the scientific process in use today and consisting in observing a phenomenon, formulating a hypothesis, and conducting an experiment to prove it.

Consequently, we structure papers in an abstract, an introduction with the background, a method section describing the experiment, presentation of the results, discussion and conclusion, and a list of the references. This format was introduced by that unrepentant optimist who was the German mathematician Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646–1716).

Love of ink

When I was a pupil in elementary school, there were several big steps through which we progressed, as from writing vertical bars to writing letters. The biggest step, though, was graduating from the pencil to ink. Our school tables had ink wells, carefully refilled every morning by the teacher. The writing implement was a pen with a delicate nib (later adding the redis nib for titles).