14 DAY TRIAL // Many advancements have been enabled by 3D printing in the short years since the technology's advent, but most files related to those breakthroughs have been kept under wraps. Not anymore though.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH), the medical research agency of the United States, has set up a new online repository, in conjunction with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
The repository, called NIH 3D Print Exchange, is a website where everyone in the world can go and peruse or download a health-related 3D printing file.
The people likeliest to benefit from the file release are still budding scientists who would like to experiment with the same techniques as the scientists who created the files in the first place.
However, the website also includes a set of tools that let visitors create their own scientifically and medically accurate 3D models, even if they have no 3D printing experience to speak of.
Even if visitors don't print the objects in the virtual models, they should still gain a better understanding of things like fungi, microbes, bacteria, and other pathogens.
All in all, it is a surprising release of materials on the part of the US government, but one that will feed the intellect of many, thus promoting further scientific advancement.
