Linketies: Science Friday

[dimensionm]

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  Research into 3-D printing is moving into yet another application for the technology: printed food. The obvious first item to try this with? Pizza. It's flat and it consists largely of layers so it's not even a great leap to imagine a pizza coming off a printer much like a document.
  


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  Another article about 3-D printing from Discover magazine goes into more depth about the astounding variety of possible applications and laments the fact that so much of the media buzz has focused on people printing untraceable guns at home. The bigger picture is this: Along with food, these printers can be used for rapidly producing prototypes for new products and technologies, printing out replacement parts for vehicles, and building components for everything from computers to spacecraft.
  
  One of the challenges of technology, especially technology that changes rapidly, is the availability of replacement parts. Along with older cars, another obvious example is military supply lines, where the need to keep units equipped with replacement parts for their equipment often creates a logistical and security nightmare.
  
  There is also a huge potential for a more egalitarian open-source manufacturing ecosystem, including open-source recipes for food, open-source designs for products, and open-source blueprints for parts. This could help to reduce the dependence of citizens on giant corporations.
  


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  NASA's chief scientists speculates that space tourism could improve how we take care of the planet. His theory is that as more people have the opportunity to see the Earth from space, there will be greater awareness of how radically we're changing the environment and how interconnected the planet's ecosystems really are. It's an optimistic viewpoint and I hope it turns out to be correct.
  


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  Speaking of radically changing the environment, corporations seem to be poised for a "gold rush" of deep sea mining -- as if mining isn't ugly and damaging enough when it's done on land. Yes, I do realize that mining is a necessary evil because there's materials that our economy society depend on. But with the horrible track record of most mining companies on such things as being careful, limiting damage, and properly disposing of hazardous waste, the idea of taking such carnage to the oceans is a depressing thought.
  


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  Electric cars are finally catching on, but how about electric spaceships? While not as common as chemical-powered rockets, electrically-powered space vehicles are slowly making inroads with NASA and the private space industry.
  


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  As we make our way through the world, it's not just footprints we leave behind anymore. It's nearly impossible to live in the modern world and avoid leaving behind a lot of data in a lot of different ways as we go about our daily business. And all of this data is collected and stored out there somewhere by an increasingly complicated network of companies that include everyone from Facebook and Google to obscure reporting bureaus and market research companies.
  
  The reality is that we have very little control over all this data even though it's about us. In a classic case of technology rapidly outpacing laws and governments, we have very few rights and protections when it comes to our data. Since corporations have so much influence over elected governments, this situation isn't likely to improve in the near future. The European Union seems to be making some progress on such issues, but that's certainly not the case in the rest of the world, particularly the United States.