Military Researchers Design Real-life 'Transformer' Plane

UK aerospace and defense contractor BAE Systems have taken the wraps off several concepts it envisions as possible tools for the military in the decades to come — and if these designs are any guide, future battlefields are going to look like the set of a science fiction movie.

The most interesting of the concepts is called the Transformer, a stealth aircraft that's actually composed of three airplanes — a large, diamond-shaped model, and two smaller flanking planes.

The Transformer is theoretically capable of longer flights that conserve fuel by reducing overall aerodynamic drag.

Right now, the most common aerial refueling techniques are the probe-and-drogue and the boom method, both of which require the delicate mid-air synchronization of separate aircraft. The Transformer would conceivably make the prospect of longer missions easier by requiring fewer mid-air fueling runs.

Alongside the Transformer, the firm also unveiled several other concept vehicles, including a self-healing aircraft called the Survivor (see video above). This plane repairs its exterior in mid-flight using a lightweight adhesive fluid within a pattern of carbon nanotubes.

BAE's concept videos also include an aircraft capable of shooting a concentrated energy beam to disable missiles as well as an aircraft (see video below) with the ability to fabricate and deploy UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) using on-board 3D printers.

But while BAE's advanced research group is known for coming up with fascinating innovations, the company is careful to mention that the concepts are mere predictions of what might be possible by 2040.

"[W]e don't know exactly what sorts of aircraft technologies will be used in 2040 with any certainty," said Nick Colosimo, an engineering manager from BAE's R&D team, in a statement. "But it's great to be able to show the public some concepts that might be possible through projecting where today’s technology could get to."

Image:youtube BAE SYSTEM

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Scientists 3D Print a 'Tumor' of Cancer Cells

Using 3D printing, researchers have made a tumor-like lump of cancer cells in the lab, and they say this lump shows a greater resemblance to natural cancer than do the two-dimensional cultured cells grown in a lab dish.

This more realistic representation of a tumor could aid studies on cancer and drug treatments, the researchers said.

To build the tumor-like structure, the researchers mixed gelatin, fibrous proteins and cervical cancer cells, then fed the resulting mixture into a 3D cell printer they had developed. Layer by layer, the printer produced a grid structure, 10 millimeters in width and length, and 2 millimeters in height.

That structure resembles the fibrous proteins that make up the extracellular matrix of a tumor, the researchers said.

The cells were then allowed to grow, and after five days, the growth took on a spherical shape. The spheres continued to grow for three more days.

The cervical cancer cells used by the researchers were HeLa cells, the "immortal" cell line that was originally taken from a cancer patient, Henrietta Lacks, in 1951. HeLa cells can multiply indefinitely and are the most common type of cells studied in cancer research.

In general, cancer studies involve cancer cells grown in the lab, which help scientists better understand the behavior of these abnormal cells. New cancer drugs are usually tested on such cells, in the lab, before being evaluated in human studies. Therefore, 2D models of cancer that consist of a single layer of cells grown in a dish have been created to assist research and testing of new drugs.

However, compared with such 2D cell cultures, the additional dimension of a 3D culture better reveals the tumor cells' characteristics, including their shape, their proliferation, and gene and protein expression, the researchers said.

"With further understanding of these 3D models, we can use them to study the development, invasion, metastasis and treatment of cancer using specific cancer cells from patients," said study researcher Wei Sun, a professor in the department of mechanical engineering at Drexel University, in Philadelphia.

"We can also use these models to test the efficacy and safety of new cancer treatment therapies and new cancer drugs," said Sun, who is also the editor-in-chief of the journal Biofabrication, in which the new research is published April 10.

The researchers also found that using certain parameters during printing made it possible for about 90% of cells to survive the printing process. The mechanical force of printing can damage cells.

This article originally published at LiveScience.

IMAGE: NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH, NATIONAL CENTER FOR MICROSCOPY, TOM DEERINCK/ASSOCIATED PRESS

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World's Smallest 3D-Printing Pen Is Coming to Kickstarter

Humans are accustomed to drawing in the air. We gesture with our hands when talking and will try to illustrate charade secrets by "drawing" objects in space. 3D-printing pens takes those gestures, makes them tangible and, in the hands of an artists, beautiful. Recent 3D-printing pens have been cool, but clunky affairs. LIX Pen, however, is something different. It's light, small and apparently needs no more power than you can draw from your run-of-the-mill laptop. Now it's coming to Kickstarter.

Measuring 6.45 inches long, 0.55 inch in diameter and weighing just 1.23 ounces, the aluminum 3D-printing pen (which also comes in black) really is pen sized. You hold it just like a pen, and plug a 3.5mm-like jack into the base and the other end of your cable into your computer. The juice allows LIX to heat to over 300-degrees Fahrenheit, though the plant-based PLA filament (it can also use the stronger ABS plastic) only needs to heat to 180-degrees to work. That filament is fed in through a hole in the base and emerges as a super-heated liquid on the tip so you can start doodling in the air.

Unlike 3D printers, there is no program guiding the printing tip. Instead, to create 3D objects, you simply start drawing in the air with the LIX Pen, moving slowly as the melted filament draws out. It cools quickly so that your structure remains rigid. Each filament rod is about 10 centimeters long and should, according to the company, last for about two minutes of air-drawing.

3D pen printing works for everything from abstract sculpture to fine art and jewelry to T-shirt design. The only limit, it appears, is your skill level and ability to hold and move the pen very, very steadily.

LIX co-founder Anton Suvorov, told the company's 3D-printing pen "has no concurrence on the market," and it should arrive in Kickstarter sometime around April 14, where the company will be taking pre-orders. The starting price, at least for the campaign, will be $139.95. LIX also sells, for $59.95, a ballpoint pen replica of LIX that is nothing more than a regular pen, but why would anyone want that?

Image: LIX

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Stratasys Unveils World's First Multi-Color, Multi-Material 3D Printer

While Star Trek replicators still don't exist, we just moved a little closer to the dream, thanks to a new kind of 3D printer. 3D-printing manufacturer Stratasys just debuted the Objet500 Connex3, the world’s first 3D printer that can produce multi-color, multi-material objects at the same time.

This means the one-dimensional design aesthetic seen in many 3D-printed prototypes can now give way to a wide range of dynamic and — more importantly — consumer-ready prototypes in terms of look and feel.

"As the first true multi-purpose 3D printer, we believe the Objet500 Connex3 color multi-material 3D printer is in a league of its own, enabling you to dream up a product in the morning, and hold it in your hands by the afternoon, with the exact intended color, material properties and surface finish," Stratasys vice-president of product marketing and sales operations Igal Zeitun, said in a statement.

Using three different base resins and 10 color palettes, the Objet500 Connex3 can craft a variety of 3D-printed objects.

Stratasys provides examples that are surprisingly elaborate, including a pair of sports goggles (complete with lenses and rubber-like components), flexible shoes, headphones, a blender and even multi-colored football and bike helmets.

However, the printer's large size suggests that it is mainly targeted toward major corporations and high-end designers, a market Stratasys believes will benefit the most from its new innovation.

"In the prototyping marketplace, people are looking to bring early realism to the production process," Jon Cobb, Stratasys' executive vice-president of marketing.

"This kind of 3D printing is important not only for a one-off process, but for a prototyping process in which you're looking for choices, including sales, marketing and engineering. Also, there's probably a lot of artists and architects that you'll start to see use this kind of wide range of materials and palette of colors. I think this will enable a whole new group of people who will be interested in 3D printing."

Stratasys also has its eye on the consumer, as proven by its 2013 acquisition of the more consumer-oriented 3D-printing company MakerBot.

However, it's unclear when — or if at all — Stratasys' multi-color, multi-material 3D printer will make it to your living room, according to Cobb.

"Down the road, three to five years, sure, there's always interest in looking at the different tech that we have and trying to combine them. But for now, there's nothing on horizon," he said.

Although Stratasys has not disclosed the exact price of the Objet500 Connex3, Cobb said it will cost around $330,000, and will be commercially available in the second quarter of 2014.

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