3-D printers can produce gun parts, aircraft wings, food and a lot more, but this new 3-D printed product may be the craziest thing yet: human embryonic stem cells.
Using stem cells as the “ink” in a 3-D printer, researchers in Scotland hope to eventually build 3-D printed organs and tissues. A team at Heriot-Watt University used a specially designed valve-based technique to deposit whole, live cells onto a surface in a specific pattern.
http://www.popsci.com/technology/articl ... -d-printer

The BotCave is home to MakerBot, a company that for nearly four years has been bringing affordable 3-D printers to the masses. But nothing MakerBot has ever built looks like the new printer these workers are currently constructing. The Replicator 2 isn’t a kit; it doesn’t require a weekend of wrestling with software that makes Linux look easy. Instead, it’s driven by a simple desktop application, and it will allow you to turn CAD files into physical things as easily as printing a photo. The entry-level Replicator 2, priced at $2,199, is for generating objects up to 11 by 6 inches in an ecofriendly material; the higher-end Replicator 2X, which costs $2,799, can produce only smaller items, up to 9 by 6 inches, but it has dual heads that let it print more sophisticated objects. With these two machines, MakerBot is putting down a multimillion-dollar wager that 3-D printing has hit its mainstream moment.
http://www.wired.com/design/2012/09/how ... facturing/

All of this adds up to a risky time for MakerBot, but Pettis sees the demonstration effect as key: Just as with the early PCs, the appeal of the devices can’t quite be understood until they’re seen in action. “Before people buy a MakerBot, they think of all the practical applications—all the stuff they can cross off their ‘honey-do’ list, the things they can fix around the house”—broken parts on the bike or the dishwasher, or a new toothbrush holder to fit a tight space. “But once they have it,” Pettis says, “their mind flips a switch. They start printing out amazing things, wonderful things.”

3D printing is the wave of the future. Sort of a mini-transporter. Soon will come the day where we'll order certain items on the Internet, download them, and print them out ourselves. Talk about instant gratification!

In an interesting episode of CSI,(the Las Vegas one), they covered printing a gun with a 3D system. Turns out it might work for one shot but more than that the piece explodes as it doesn't get enough internal strength to hold the charge behind the cartridge.