Presented by Alicia Henn and Hugh Sullivan

In the middle 1400s, Johannes Gutenberg couldn’t envision how his moveable type printing press would evolve into one of the most transformative inventions in human history. The same can be said of the additive manufacturing process commonly called 3D printing. Over the last thirty years, this technology has transformed numerous processes and applications, enabling the computer-controlled creation of three-dimensional objects as diverse as peoples’ imaginations. Today, we have merely scratched the surface of this technology.

We’re now able to produce low-cost prototypes of almost any type of item, and final, usable versions of clothing and shoes, automobile and aircraft parts, electronic components, firearms, food, medical implants, human tissues, and even the demon horns used in a recent Face Off episode on the SYFY channel – just to name a few. What will 3D printing evolve into? We can only speculate and that’s what we’ll do during our August meeting.

Alicia Henn and Hugh Sullivan will lead a discussion about what 3D printing is, how printing human tissues is being advanced, and some examples of what can be created using a 3D printer. We’ll then see how 3D printing can be included in your speculative fiction stories. For a moment, consider sending artificial intelligence-controlled, 3D printer-factories to new worlds to print the probes and rovers needed to explore those worlds. Would this be a more efficient process than launching fully designed probes from Earth into space? What could possibly go wrong with a 3D printer let loose on an alien world?

Alicia Henn is the Chief Scientific Officer at BioSpherix, Ltd. and the R-SPEC Treasurer. Hugh Sullivan is an author, musician, podcaster, and the R-SPEC Vice President.

Presenters:Alicia Henn and Hugh Sullivan
Location: Barnes & Noble, Pittsford
Meeting Time: August 1, 2017 from 7-9 p.m.