Lifeboat Foundation

It prints using light.

3D printers work by laboriously printing objects layer by layer. For larger objects, that process can take hours or even days.

But now scientists at the University of California, Berkeley have found a shortcut: a printer that can fabricate objects in one shot using light — and which could, potentially, revolutionize rapid manufacturing technology.

The Replicator

The research, published in the journal Science yesterday, describes a printer the researchers nicknamed “the replicator” in a nod to “Star Trek.”