I believe this happens inside a liquid substrate that cures (hardens) when exposed to light. Instead of building up a shape by exposing a series of flat layers (stacked on top of eachother) one at a time, this exposes the entire 3d shape at once, using holograms.
That replicator involved arbitrary chemistry, so except for faster polymer flavored chicken nuggets, no. :)
But if they can scale up dimensions it is a big opportunity.
Or scale down dimensions.
Or scale up resolution.
Or scale up the throughput for manufacturing small complex parts. Not just one part at a time but many parts in proximity at a time, a bit like chip production.
All four seem likely now that the principle has been proven.
Figure 5g: not that impressive a Benchy. But printed much faster, presumably.
For lazy folks like me https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-026-10114-5/figures/5
The squid is pretty impressive, multiple curves.
Promising tech
> not that impressive
Until you see the scale bar
ELI5?
Is this a Star Trek replicator or what?
I believe this happens inside a liquid substrate that cures (hardens) when exposed to light. Instead of building up a shape by exposing a series of flat layers (stacked on top of eachother) one at a time, this exposes the entire 3d shape at once, using holograms.
That replicator involved arbitrary chemistry, so except for faster polymer flavored chicken nuggets, no. :)
But if they can scale up dimensions it is a big opportunity.
Or scale down dimensions.
Or scale up resolution.
Or scale up the throughput for manufacturing small complex parts. Not just one part at a time but many parts in proximity at a time, a bit like chip production.
All four seem likely now that the principle has been proven.
that was my first reaction