Hasta La Ideas

We’ve explored 3D printing from lasercused bike porn to the new domain of litigators to the surge in cheap consumer-level printers. But here’s an area about to be changed by 3D printing that you might not have considered: Brain surgery.

Scientists from the University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur recently created a realistic 3D-printed skull that matches the dense grey matter texture of our brain, including the layers of connective tissue. So maybe no more cutting into cadavers, med students can practice on 3D models, that are more realistic than anything previously produced (see photo at top for a sample of a previous model.)

You can watch a student cutting into the more realistic model in this video, but be forewarned, it’s quite realistic:

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