3D printing: When science and technology take us by surprise

3D printing (or ‘additive’ or ‘digital manufacturing’) has been around for a while (and we’ll see for how long further on in this post); even 4D printing has been around for a while. However, 3D printing only really came into focus for me quite recently, when I came across the metaphors ‘3D printer of life’ …

From making to shaking: The new world of ‘4D’ printing

I haven’t written a blog about a novel scientific development for a while, so when I read about 4D printing in New Scientist at the weekend, I thought the time had come to get to work again. I had heard about this new way of ‘making’ objects before but had not really looked into the ins …