It may come as a surprise to many, but 3D printing can be used for medical purposes other than printing prosthetics from a digital blueprint.

Medicine is always evolving, at an ever-increasing pace, and we’re seeing some amazing innovations in the field of bio-printing. Although we’re not quite at the stage of having the digital blueprint for an entire new liver or a duodenum, companies like bitplane.com are working on these blueprints.

Bio-printing

Bio-printing is pretty much as it sounds – the technology uses bio-ink, made from living cells – and when a digital blueprint is entered, the living cells are printed according to the design. They’re printed layer by layer to create new organs and body parts.

Viable organs

As yet we haven’t managed to print an entire organ and transplant it, but researchers have managed to print kidney cells and make sheets of cardiac tissue that respond to electrical stimuli in the same way as a real heart. There’s also been a lot of progress in synthesising basic livers, so we’re well on our way to being able to replicate organs, although it may still be as long as a decade away.

Stem cells

Stem cells are astounding as they are, with their regenerative properties that mean they can be persuaded to form whatever tissue type is needed. When stem cells are bio-printed into customised shapes and then “told” to form a heart, or a layer of skin, we’re not too far away from being able to print cells straight into, or onto, the body.

Skin grafts

Those sheets of stem cells will be brilliant news for burn patients, or people with skin cancer and other diseases or injuries that cause the loss of areas of skin. These sprayed or printed-on grafts are much less likely to be rejected and the procedure will be far less painful than conventional skin grafts.

Printing new bone and cartilage

Research teams on both sides of the Atlantic are working on bio-printing bone and cartilage, which will help arthritis sufferers, as well as anyone with complicated breaks and fractures, or osteoporosis. Currently the tissues developed aren’t quite as strong as the real thing, but it’s only a matter of time.

Cancer cells

This might seem a bit of a shocker, but researchers are printing cancer cells in their labs. This is so they can study the development and proliferation of these cells as they make their progress towards the disease in the human body. Having labs full of cancer cultures will also help us to test drugs and other procedures on them more effectively.

Hearts and blood vessels

A German lab has created blood vessels with artificial cells, as well as a 3D printer and a laser to guide everything into place. Another lab in Australia is working on ways to repair damaged heart tissue by introducing patches of healthy tissue made from printed cells.

These “repair patches” have worked out well in trials on rats and the cells go on to form tissues that work just the same as real cardiac tissue. Maybe we really will be able to mend broken hearts…

The UK may not immediately spring to mind when thinking of the countries that can benefit most from solar energy, and with the recent decrease in government backed subsidies for solar panels like the popular Feed-in Tariff, many thought UK solar was in danger of meltdown. However, contrary to popular belief, UK solar energy is actually proving stronger than ever!

In fact, just recently the UK’s solar power set a new electricity record by supplying a quarter of the nation’s demand and surpassing output from nuclear power stations for the first time in history. It seems that far from dwindling, UK solar panels are harnessing more energy than ever before.

The Future of FiT

The Feed-in Tariff (FiT) is a UK government initiative which was first implemented in 2010. The tariff was designed to subsidise clean energy as a way of encouraging people to adopt the then cutting-edge technology. When solar panels were still relatively new, the panels could be extremely costly to install and so the FiT provided an incentive for people to make money back on their investment.

The scheme meant that the government paid for every kWh of energy the panels produced and consequently homeowners’ energy bills dropped significantly and people were actually making money from having solar panels – as any excess energy could also be sold back to the grid. However, in 2015, the FiT tariff was slashed by 64%. While this has certainly had an impact on the uptake of solar panels, for those willing to make the investment, there is still a huge margin to make.

Despite the tariff reduction, once signed up, the scheme lasts for 20 years and according to theecoexperts.co.uk you can save up to £404 a year. With energy prices constantly fluctuating, solar panels offer homeowners a way of reducing their energy expenditure at a fixed rate of return, and with solar panels now costing less than ever, your return on investment kicks in quickly.

Climate Change Calling

There’s no denying the changes to the UK’s weather in recent years, in fact, according to Met Office statistics, the average temperature of the country could rise to an alarming 10°c this year, which is 1.2°c higher than the norm. Though allowances can be made for year on year discrepancies, UK government statistics show that 13 of the 14 warmest years on record have occurred in the 21st century and warming oceans and rising sea levels all point towards climate change. These disquieting statistics are all the more reason to decrease the global carbon footprint as much as possible.

According to Good Energy UK the energy you use at home accounts for around half of your personal carbon footprint, which is approximately 1 tonne of CO2 from electricity and 1 tonne of CO2 from gas per year. Switching your home to solar energy can cut your personal carbon footprint in half and decrease your energy bills dramatically.

Jon Whiting, solar energy expert at the UK’s leading energy saving comparison website, The Eco Experts, says: “Making environmentally minded improvements to your home has never been more important in terms of ecological concerns for the future of the planet. Resources are limited and making small changes to the environmental efficiency of your home can really help to reduce our collective dependence on fossil fuels.”

Global Growth

Government statistics show that UK solar power capacity is increasing. The data shows that UK solar has grown from 11.3GW in April last year to 12.1GW this year, which is enough to power around 3.8 million homes.

Paul Barwell, chief executive of the Solar Trade Association comments: “This is a colossal achievement […] and sends a very positive message to the UK that solar has a strong place in the decarbonisation of the UK energy sector.”

This upward trend is reflected worldwide, with China and the US’ recent adoption of solar energy boosting global solar output by a phenomenal 50%. Overall the use of solar energy has recently grown by around 40% worldwide and the rapid reduction in its installation cost demonstrates the potential of solar power to deliver on an even larger scale.

To sum up, global confidence in solar power is definitely increasing. As the photovoltaic technology advances and more countries than ever before begin to utilise its power, there is real room for substantial growth in this sector. Though domestic solar is certainly a financial investment for the individual, the payouts and savings quickly negate this initial outlay and now that we are seeing the real impact domestic solar can have, the case for all of us to ‘do our bit’ to reduce energy consumption is stacking up.