Old Ink-Jets to Create Human Skin?
In his half of the December 2nd "Alice and Bill's Tech Edge" column Bill said "All ink jet printers are throw-aways." This comment caused lots of contention in the response posts over at PC Mag´s forums. While I usually agree with Bill, and certainly do with the fact that ink-jet printers are a give away to convince us to spend our money on ink that is more expensive than Dom Perignon, the fact is, a use has been found for ink jets; one that doesn't include ink!

Researchers have found a novel way to recycle our old ink-jet printers, and it has nothing to do with growing daisies. "A team of scientists working to create human tissue may have a good use for them. Ink jets that are ten years old, they say, are perfectly suited to create sheets of human skin and other tissue that one day may help burn victims and even manufacture organs." says a PC World news article. Not only can the technology be used for skin cells, but may even one day be used for transplant organs and plastic surgery. And I thought CAD printers were cool.

Of course, its probably a while before we get to see this technology in action, but its nice to see technology take a step back and use something from the past for applications of the future. I've got a couple ancient ink jets sitting in my basement that I would be willing to part with, and God knows what Bill has in the Lab of Doom. Lets just hope they don´t start a consortium on it.

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