3D printers that manufacture metal objects
Printing metal objects was too expensive, but in 2017, researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, United States, developed a method to create stainless steel parts with 3D printing that are twice as resistant as those produced by conventional methods.
That same year, the 3D printing company Markforged, a small startup, launched the first three-dimensional metal printer that costs less than 80 thousand euros, while the startup Desktop Metal began sending the first units of its metal printing prototype in December 2017.
Desktop Metal also plans to start selling larger models that are 100 times faster than older metal printing methods.
Artificial embryos
Embryologists at the University of Cambridge, UK, have developed mouse embryos from stem cells, without an ovum or sperm; only with cells extracted from another embryo.
"We know that stem cells are magical because of their powerful potential for what they can do. But we did not know that they could authorize themselves in such a beautiful and perfect way, "said the head of the research team, Magdelena Zernicka-Goetz.
These embryos are "synthetic" so they could not have turned into mice; However, the next step is to create an artificial embryo from human stem cells and they are already doing it at the University of Michigan and the Rockefeller University, both in the US.
The city of the future
Alphabet's Sidewalk laboratories plan to create an ultratechnological neighborhood in Toronto, Canada, where an extensive network of sensors monitors everything, and all vehicles are autonomous and shared.
However, monitoring public infrastructure has generated concerns about data control and privacy; however, Sidewalk labs believe they can work with the community and the local government to alleviate these concerns.