There are food shortages around the world. People die from hunger in all countries and regions. Keeping the seven billion residence of the world fed has been a problem since the dawn of humanity. What will happen when there are 12 billion mouths to feed? According to Anjan Contractor, the human population will not be sustainable once we reach “peak” population, which is one reason why NASA is granting him the money to explore using 3D printers as a way to produce food and minimize waste? It doesn’t sound appetizing, but it may be necessary according to Contractor, who received a 6-month, $125,000…

3D printing holds the promise of allowing people to take something they envision and turn it into a tangible object, whether as a prototype for a design or as something that can be useful in and of itself. The biggest problem today is logistics. Despite a low demand for 3D printing, availability is even lower, making the queues for 3D printers at schools and companies long. As the demand goes up, there will need to be a better solution than having a university 3D printing lab trying to keep up. The guys at Dreambox think they have a solution. What if all you had to do was build a design or pick one out of a library,…

The Pez is strong with this one. If there’s one thing we’ve learned about true geeks over the years, it’s that they love Star Wars in any form. Our patience was tested to its fullest with the most recent trilogy, but we did not waver for very long. Disney and JJ Abrams give us hope, a new hope, so to speak, but until we go through another round of tests of our trust in the Star Wars universe, we have these flash drive Pez dispensers around to keep us busy. According to BitRebels: Another example are these super geeky Star Wars Pez Dispensers that are modded to include a flash drive inside. Etsy artist DHHdesign…

Clever. Tasty. Creepy. Hot Pop Factory has been able to make a name for itself by generating creative pieces of jewelry using 3D printers. Now, they’ve used a neat hack with Microsoft’s Xbox Kinect system to scan a person’s head, print it out on a 3D printer, and put it on the top of a Pez dispenser. If you’ve ever wanted to distribute candy through a hole beneath a figure of your head on a stick, this is the way to do it. Check out the video of how they scan the heads through Kinect and some images of the finished results:  …

Soon, you may have an entirely new scapegoat for not attending all manner of functions: a printer jam. 3D printing gurus Stratasys took engineering company Kor Ecologic out to a couple fancy dinners, one thing led to another, and now we have the Urbee, the world’s first 3D-printed car. I guess I missed the memo; I had no idea 3D printing was coming along as blindingly fast as it is. For serious, the Urbee is a fully-functioning automobile, the parts of which are entirely fabricated via 3D printer, windows and everything. It’s only a two-seater, but it’s not the size of the 3D-printed car – it’s that…

At the risk of publicizing a superhero’s Achilles’ heel for all to see, here’s some shocking news: The Iron Man suit used in Iron Man II is in fact made of plastic, NOT iron. If only Ivan Vanko had known this before creating an entire army of evil clone robots to hunt down and kill Tony Stark. The team behind the effects in Iron Man 2 relied heavily on a cutting edge new technology for designing, prototyping and building the suit used in the hit movie. 3D printing is all the rage in the manufacturing and medical sectors, but many applications have yet to be fully explored. In this case, 3D printing was used…

3D Printing has always been a bit of a confusing concept. It’s always seemed a bit befuddling to think that 3D objects – things you can pick up and hold and use – could be printed in the same way that a document or photo are. All that said – who cares? Look! Shiny jewelery! The Goncalo Campos Camion collection is a set of stainless-steel pieces that have been created using a 3D printer. The jewelery is quite unique in that the printing process leaves a rough, distinctive texture on the steel, which also means that it’s not only pretty, but very tough too. The pieces display a spare design, and seem perfect…