You Won’t Believe How 3D Printing Helped This Turtle [View all]

[Playinghardball]

Technology is pretty awesome. Sure, it gives us toys whose obsolescence is already planned well in advance and creates a culture of people fascinated by gadgets.

But it also gives us the ability to save lives that would have been lost in a previous era. A case in point is this sea turtle. It was brought practically lifeless in to the Sea Turtle Research, Rescue, and Rehabilitation Center at Pamukkale University in Turkey. The turtle was missing almost all of its lower jaw from an apparent collision with a propeller. It was lucky to be alive. Vets brought AKUT3–as the turtle became known–back to health slowly, but the jaw injuries were too severe for the 100-pound animal to be put back into the wild.

Enter a company specializing in designing and printing 3D prosthetics. For free, the company made models of AKUT3’s skull and used them to make titanium implants that would allow the animal to eat again without assistance.

AKUT3 then went into a lengthy surgery and emerged in shape. Two weeks later, it had not rejected the implants and is now thought to be the first turtle to use 3D prosthetics.

Now that’s using science for good. Amazing.

http://bluenationreview.com/you-wont-believe-how-3d-printing-helped-this-turtle/#ixzz3aWZYhkz6