Liquid 3-D Printer Speeds Past the Rest

Tired of waiting around for hours while your 3-D printer spits out a sculpture of your cat, bit by bit? A new liquid 3-D printer—developed by scientists at the startup Carbon3D and studied by researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill—could speed up the process considerably. This technology, dubbed continuous liquid interface production, is 25 to 100 times faster than current 3-D printers. The researchers outlined their findings in Science last week. We examine what sets this 3-D printer apart from the others, and explore the novel ways that the technology could be applied in the lab.