The magic of 3D printing- Yomara Leon

Looking back taking this course has been a roller coaster experience. It was defiantly a different type of class compared to the ones I’m used to taking every semester. Reading the book Makers by Chris Anderson was inspiring and motivated me to be more creative. The book and this class showed me to appreciate how things are made and to think outside the box (or coffee cup I must say.) Thinking beyond has strengthen my perspective towards how I perceive products and everyday situations.

The coffee cup project was a complex and intensive assignment which challenge me in every way possible. I had difficulties narrowing done a specific need and brainstorming ideas that would cater to this unknown need. However as a team we were able to contribute ideas and establish an overall concept. I feel the project taught me to be more aware of people’s needs. As a marketing student knowing what people want and need are essential, it helps to narrow down target markets, marketing strategy etc. This project was a great experience as a way to practice the process of what it is to launch a new product. Not just the business side but also focusing on establishing an unmet consumer need. I feel after taking this course I’m more confident when thinking of becoming an entrepreneur. I believe I have good ideas and have always wanted to make them a reality, but I always felt misguided and unsure. However now I feel empowered by the Maker Movement and feel there are many needs, that aren’t met specially for niche markets.

Although this course was very time consuming and contain a variety of work, it was an accomplishment for me to take this class. From the beginning, as I stated in a previous post, I was lucky to find an open spot for this class since my previous art course was cancel. If I was to give myself an important advice before I started this course again. It will be not to doubt myself on unknown grounds, every beginning is hard and it takes time to master anything. The point is to keep creativity alive and think beyond what is traditional and acceptable. I hope that with the skills and knowledge that I have gain in this class, I want to inform younger generations to take notice on 3D printing and all the revolutionary innovations that they can be part of. I’m glad to mention that my younger sister seems to be very curious with SketchUp and looks forward on investigating more on the concept of 3D printing.

Below is a design she is working on, she is so excited she is able to create designs using this program.    

Is really hard not to think of meat after doing this research. However I’m confident with how far I have come with my blog and the effort I have put into this concept of 3D meat. I have also accomplished in increasing my knowledge on a topic that has intrigued me since the first time it was introduce to me in class. The process of this research was very interesting, especially when I did my primary research on consumer’s opinions on bioprinted meat. Some participants that I interviewed thought I was crazy, and I needed to show them a video proving this ongoing research.

Finding my information was not very complex as I have thought at first, especially being that this concept is still on theory and under research. Throughout my research I was surprised by the statistics, which showed our increase in meat consumption in the future and what are the costs that go into raw meat in order for us to be able to consume it. After analyzing this information it makes you wonder, what is our future going to lead concerning our meat consumption? When our population just keeps growing and cattle population is decreasing. At this point bioprinted meat doesn’t sound like a bad alternative to me. Variety of research has also stated that countries like India, where the majority of people are vegetarians, are suddenly eating meat. This is also happening in other countries as well.

Another interesting fact found through my research is the benefits of producing bioprinted meat. I always have been a supporter of ending animal cruelty, which is one of the reasons why I found this topic fascinated. However the process of printing meat goes beyond protecting animal cruelty, it will so provides a solution to so many problems worldwide like world hunger, climate change, deforestation and fossil fuel dependency. This information is significant to understand because this way people are more open to change. Of course the thought of meat being processed in a lab isn’t appealing to some but in realty if this 3D meat taste like meat looks like meat and may even contain more nutrients than regular meat. Why should be stop ourselves to something new just because of our traditional ways?

I honestly wished that more rapid research was done, in order to provide more information referring to any side effects or complications due to consuming 3D meat. However I think my research answers questions for people who are recently investigating this topic. Like I mention previously this concept is still under research. Furthermore I hope to continue my research on this topic and look forward in observing consumer behavior, whether to consume engineer meat or not. I will also be interesting to see if this meat will even be affordable for anyone to purchase it. Overall this research has a long way to go.

After analyzing my research I have concluded that 3D meat has the possibility of becoming a big success in the future. The benefits that 3D printing will provide to the world will not only change our consumption behavior but the way we perceive meat products. Although there are many who agree and disagree with this new concept. I believe with the help of companies like Modern Meadow we are moving forward into creating 3D meat a reality, and not just a scientific idea. In my next blog I will discuss further in detail my analyze and thoughts on this concept.   

So this past months have been more than hectic filled with presentations and numerous papers to do. Which didn’t give me the time to find a local professor to interview to discuss on the concept of 3D printing meat. However I was able to find a video presented, by New America Foundation which featured three professionals who discussed on different topics referring to consumers increase on meat consumption, how this harms our environment, how technology is being used by farmers to become more environmental friendly and what other alternatives do we have to reduce our meat consumption. The panelist consisted of Dr. Gabor Forgacs, founder of Modern Meadow and forefront on 3D printing, Graham Meritwether director, cinematographer and producer of “America Meat and Leave it Better.” And Dawn Moncrief Founder and Executive Director of A Well Fed World Moderator.

So the interview began by discussing how meat consumption is increasing worldwide. Dawn Moncrief requests consumers to reduce their meat consumption, since we are decreasing cattle and natural resources.Dr. Gabor Forgacs thinks that although the idea to reduce meat is an acceptable statement to promote. He believes this statement is wishful thinking, he believes the request is noble however people are not going to reduce eating meat. He begins discussing his search of engineer meat. Which will drastically reduce of use of animals to obtain our meat products; it will also stop animal cruelty and has the possibility to supply the high demands of meat, as estimated for the next 50 years. He also explains that people need to change the way they perceive 3D meat. He stated that 3D meat should be looked as the same purpose as flour, flour is used as a main ingredient to make cookie, cupcakes, cakes etc. 3D meat has the same usage, it can be used as an ingredient to prepare many dishes. He mentions that the pork chop that he ate in the TEDMED presentation had a mutual taste and feel as the actual meat. The fact that he is still alive, Dr. Forgacs states that as 3D meat process it will benefit and change that way we consume meat and gain our proteins.

Graham Meritwether comments that agriculture is changing as well and younger generations are getting more involved in how we get out food. He mentions that farmers are using current technology to make their job more efficient as well, as protecting the environment. The overall discussion wasn’t very long is only 46 minutes, in this post I have post the highlight of the interview. For the full interview please click on the link below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_Vwa2VT2uU

For those in search for a more healthier option to eat check out this website: Awfw.org

After investigating whether 3D meat consumption is dangerous to the human body, sadly there isn’t enough information regarding any side effects or future complications due to consuming 3D meat. As mention in previous post the company Modern Meadow is in the process of researching and finding ways in how to create edible meat, as well as creating leather as fabric.

After watching a TEDMED presentation of Dr. Gabor Forgacs on October 2011, founder of Modern Meadow, eating a pork chop. There is no doubt in my mind that this process of 3D meat has the potential of being a substitute of meat. Although there may be no recent discovers of whether 3D meat is good or bad for human consumption. It is clear that engineer meat will benefit many worldwide issues such as world hunger, deforestation, fossil fuel dependency, animal cruelty, and climate change.

Modern Meadow is also aware of trying to make 3D meat to have a similar taste and texture as of real meat. They believe this will be very important in order to satisfy peoples craving of meat taste and will attract skeptics to be more open to accept this type of meat. The project has already received a $92,000 Small Business Innovation Research phase one grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and a $350,000 grant from Breakout Labs. Even the president of PETA Ingrid Newkirk, has also approved of Modern Meadow’s mission stating that “People who find it hard to remove themselves from eating meat will have something they can eat that is not cruel, that will be cleaner and will be far less resource intensive than factory farming.” I’m hoping that there research is a success and it will be very interested to see how 3D meat will be marketed to consumer in order to change their perception of engineer meat. I will stay tune.

Sources used:

http://www.inc.com/john-mcdermott/big-ideas/modern-meadow-in-vitro-meat.html

http://news.cnet.com/8301-11386_3-57493377-76/3d-printed-meat-its-whats-for-dinner/

From my last post I was curious and eager to investigate people opinions and concerns about bioprinting meat. Since this concept is not something everyone is informed about, I decided the best way to conduct my data is to ask around my friends and family members on their thoughts concerning this topic. I was eager to find out people’s thought of this new innovation.  If they see any outcomes that will benefit people in the future? And will they be willing to consume meat that was been bioengineered?

I began my research asking friends and family members whether they have heard of 3D printing. I was surprise that a large amount of people where informed about this new technology, and where fascinated with the concept of being able to print out designs in 3D form. I then proceeded with more complex questions referring bioprinting. The results were favorable and many of the participates thought the idea of constructing organs was a revolutionary idea and should be put into practice. It was touching at one point, because out of the 30 people that I was able to interview, ten of the participates had a relative or friend that had die due to an organ failure. Surprisingly the majority of participates were also willing to give bioprinting a chance, if they were in need of a new organ.

However when I brought up the ideas of bioprinting meat, interestingly enough there was an even number of people who favor and those who opposed this type of bioprinting. Many were skeptical with the fact that meat will be processed as a “science project” for humans to consume, as stated by one of the participates. Indeed it is understandable that people may feel this way, being that this concept is new and people are used to getting their animal products from slaughterhouses or factories. Participates felt bioprinted meat will be more harmful to the human body than the meat we consume today.

But not everyone felt this way, there were others that thought differently and were more open minded than the traditional participates. These people were willing to try bioprinted meat, if it were ever fabricated and sold for human consumption. They believed biopringing meat had the benefit to help solve global issues, for example providing food to third world countries that are in need for food. They also mention that food can be manipulated to contain more nutrients and proteins than regular food. This will help people who need certain special diets.

Though my research I was lucky to also interview a vegetarian concerning this topic. He thought that although bioprinting meat can help prevent farm animal cruelty, he still wouldn’t be convinced to consume this meat. He felt that at the end this “meat” is still processed with chemicals, just like the meat we consume now. The only difference is that companies wouldn’t have to sacrifice the animal.

After the interviews I was able to glance at the cons and the pros of how people perceive bioprinting meat. Participates that agree or disagree with this concept both have strong valid points, which need to be acknowledged. We still remain unknown to what extended bioprinting will reach, meanwhile people need to be more open minded towards the changes that technology will bring in the future. I believe that although manufacturing meat in a lab is controversial and strange, it has the potential to solve many global problems that affect us greatly today.

Recently I been researching on the concept of bio-printing. One of the most revolutionized innovations to be tested is brio-printing new organs for regenerative medicine. The idea is to be able to print out new organs for sick patients or patients waiting for an organ donor.  This concept not only will change medical procedures, but will save millions of lives in need for an organ transplant.

The process

Through this idea Dr. Gabor Forgacs, founder of Modern Meadow, is the first to focus on creating cultured meat and leather.  The concept of bioprinting meat is illustrated as follow: “to bioengineer meat, the scientists first get stem cells or other specialized cells from an animal via a common procedure known as biopsy. Stem cells are cells able to replicate themselves many times, and also can turn into other specialized cells. Once the cells multiplied to sufficient numbers, they are put into a bio-cartridge. So instead of traditional ink or a material like plastic, the 3D printer cartridge contains something called bioink made of hundreds of thousands of live cells. Once printed in the desired shape, the bioink particles naturally fuse to form living tissue. This process of bioprinting biomaterials is similar to attempts to print artificial organs for transplants – but the result could well end up in your frying pan.” (This is also illustrated above)

Although the thought of consuming bioengineering meat will bring controversy and critics, it also provides an option to stop/help world hunger, end the inhumane conditions cattle undergo in slather houses and improve environmental conditions. As stated in a 2011 study in the journal Environmental Science and Technology showed that “full-scale production of cultured meat could greatly reduce water, land and energy use, and emissions of methane and other greenhouse gases, compared with conventional raising and slaughtering of cattle or other livestock.” This study is an eye opener because as our population continues to increase our consumption of meat will significantly increase as well. As the figure above shows, today we depend on 60 billion land animals to obtain our meat source, yet by 2050 it is estimated that our meat consumption will double. The question here is will there be enough cattle to feed our growing population in the future? At this point bioprinted meat is an appealing option to investigate.

However we must also think of the conflict, one of them is people’s perceptions of meat being produce in a laboratory rather than a traditional slaughter house. Dr. Forgacs is well aware of this concern and believes is best to introduce consumer to cultured leather first before cultured meat. He hopes people will notice the benefits of cultured leather; this way consumers will have a greater chance of accepting cultured meat.  However although it may be a good strategic way to introduce people to this concept of bioprinting, I believe manufacturing leather is different from creating meat. Meat is food that we consume and leather is a material people can use or wear. Although bioprinting is still at an early life stage, it’s going to be interesting seeing how bioprinting will develop in the future and how human behavior may change completely and adapt to a new way of consuming goods.

For more information use links:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1Q2oLxEOF8

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-20972018

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/16/peter-thiels-3d-meat_n_1789665.html

http://www.webpronews.com/3d-printed-meat-may-be-the-future-of-food-2013-09

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/14/science/engineering-the-325000-in-vitro-burger.html?_r=3&hp=&adxnnl=1&pagewanted=all&adxnnlx=1385345223-u2AH8pOFRee0CIH92xwmKA&

Makerspace Experience:

On a regular Wednesday our course took a different route from our usual class time. We had the chance to be creative at Makerspace, the experience was great and I had a lot of fun playing with most of the toys there. Since I was sitting on the Lego table from the beginning of class I decided to give it a try and built something out of Lego’s. When I was a kid I used to play with the jumbo size Lego’s but never with the type of Lego’s that I saw in class. I also didn’t find Lego’s very entertaining as a kid; however after Makerspace I can’t say the same. Playing with Lego’s was actually very intense and fun at the same time because I kept changing my mind in terms of what I wanted to build, so I just began picking up pieces that I thought were “cool” and began putting them together. At first I thought I was building a nightclub then the structure started looking like a jail cell and finally I decide to make a ship. Making the ship with Lego’s was actually more work than I thought because some piece were very small and at times I couldn’t find a certain piece that I need since we had to share the pieces with other students. However I managed to create a decent ship model that I was appease to create. If we were to have more time I would of liked to play around with the origami because it also involves creating and is something I enjoy doing. What I enjoyed the most of playing with Lego’s is the creativity process, I believe as we grow up we lose that sense of being creative and using our imagination. Lego’s enables you to be creative. Overall the whole experience was enjoyable and it gave me a chance to play around with technology that I haven’t seen yet. It also made me realize that technology is expanding faster than ever by creating stuff that are fun and interesting for everyone.

11/11- how to increase my knowledge on the benefits and peoples thoughts of 3D bioprinting meat?

11/18- research what advances has been done with bioprinting meat?

11/25- Try to get in touch with an institution, educator or program that is working on bioprinting. Request if any may be interested in providing an interview for my blog.

12/2- interview people on their thoughts about 3D bioprinting meat.

12/9- research any available data that shows any risks that bioprinting meat can cause to the human body.

12/11- Analyze my findings and determine conclusions.