alt Hacker NewsThey 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.
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From the paper:
> The ink used for the proof of extrusion demonstration is a ready-to-use, polyethylene oxide–based training bioink purchased and used directly from the vendor (Cellink Start, Cellink)
> The ink used for the honeycomb demonstration and the maple leaf demonstration is a sacrificial, temperature-sensitive, 40% (w/v) Pluronic F-127 in deionized water bioink purchased and used directly from the vendor (Pluronic F-127, Allevi).
> The ink used for the first cell-laden grid demonstration is Pluronic F-127 bioink with B16 cancer cells suspended in solution.
> The ink used for the second cell-laden grid demonstration is Pluronic F-127 bioink embedded with RBCs.
> The ink used for the cell viability experiments is Pluronic F-127 bioink with B16 cancer cells suspended in solution.
"They mounted the mosquito proboscis on a standard dispensing tip and used it to deposit specialized bioinks.", "They then successfully printed bioscaffolds used to support cell growth and high-resolution microstructures".
Tissue-printing type stuff, not plastic
From TFA, they're using it to print bioinks. Think scaffolding for cell cultures.
At these kinds of physical scales, biology is almost certainly a much larger market than mechanical applications. A 20 um line width (slightly less than one thou for US folks) is certainly a tolerance you might encounter on a drawing for subtractive manufacturing, but for addative, feature sizes that small will be strength limited.