Engineers repurpose a mosquito proboscis to create a 3D printing nozzle

If you want to see a mosquito and it's proboscis up close, I recently scanned one into a gaussian splat: https://superspl.at/view?id=b4cbf5d6

> Its inner diameter is 20 micrometers, which is about 100% finer than the best commercially available tips.

"100% finer", who uses language like this? I don't even know what it means. How about "half the diameter"?

Calling it a necroprinter is equal parts ominous and spectacular.

They say the mosquito proboscis has a 20 μm inner diameter, "100% finer" than commercial alternatives (presumably meaning half the diameter). Not having read the paper, I'm guessing it can't handle 210° molten PLA.

I wonder if at scale this will lead to mosquito farms or to mosquito extinction in nature.

Of course I suspect it will be the former but the latter is way funnier.

We've been stuck with these insects for a while. It would be so funny that the solution to get rid of them was in fact the same that wiped out many species before: over exploitation of natural resources.

cc https://tornyol.com/

This is cool and great and all, but isn't it a bit ... stretched to motivate this by the fact that the nozzle is biodegradable?

I mean for a printing nozzle with an inner diameter of 20 µm, how much material would be wasted if it was made out of plastic or metal? I get that no such nozzle is available and/or easily made, but shouldn't that be the point of the invention, rather than "yay, it's biodegradable so we save a microgram of plastic/metal"?

I'm so disappointed they didn't print a tiny benchy in their videos.