3D printable.... FOOD?

3D-printable food? NASA wants a taste

Grant money goes to see if we can't print perfect, nutritious food.

by Casey Johnston - May 21 2013, 9:19am MDT

• Open Source
• Startups

55

http://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-conten...od-640x377.png

NASA has bestowed a $125,000 grant upon a research corporation to pursue the development of 3D-printable food, according to a report from Quartz. Anjan Contractor, who runs Systems & Materials Research Corporation, hopes to design a system that will turn shelf-stable cartridges of sugars, complex carbs, and protein into edible food on demand.
Contractor asserts that by the time the population reaches 12 billion people (“peak human” for Earth being around 9.5 billion to 10 billion people), we will have to change our perceptions of what “food” is in order to sustain everyone. A modified RepRap 3D printer serves as Contractor’s theoretical prototype design for printing food.
Contractor plans to keep the printer open-source and envisions situations where recipes can be traded and tweaked by users. The printer could even theoretically produce foods based on the optimal nutritional makeup for the consumer, whether it’s a young boy, old woman, or hung-over college student.
Quartz notes, per the NASA grant, that Contractor's current focus is developing printable food for space travel. If 3D printers can someday handle food chemistry like they handle gun components (and become drastically less expensive), we’d try some nutritionally optimized meatcubes fresh out of the extruder. For science.

And there it is. The start to what we had years ago in Star Trek. A device that simply makes food. Of course such a machine does not make it from thin air ingredients, but seeing it as coming from tubes or various parts it is easy to see where this is intended to go.

We're simply ten steps away from making it from thin air, I think.

LOL


(I'm a little concerned about the "nondescript protein paste" thing myself.... what is that? ground up earth worms or something?)

Most likely it's soy-based ... soy has the full protein chain, can be flavored to taste like just about anything and keeps better than most meat-based protein sources. ("the more you know ..." ) ;)

-Bryk

hahahaha

http://www.horsetrackhooligans.com/w..._trek_food.jpg

http://pics.livejournal.com/zama60/p...283s0/s320x240

I never read the beer thread anymore. It should probably be deleted or paper shredded since it causes so much envy, greed and glutonlous thoughts. Not to mention it could cause a potential angry drunkedness.
.... Various "drought and famine trees", which I happen to grow, including noni and moringa bear 16% protein, full plated w/ vitamins and minerals. ... It's possible. That f. beer thread is a real problem though. It's a big sin (for me). I like cheep beer w/ lime and salt. .... hmmm. ground leaves to a pill. & who knowz if they don't put "dope" in the ink.

I watched the movie. Pretty freaky, huh? Even saw camote leaves (sweet potatoes vine leaves), which i also grow. Hey. Why don't these companies brew better beer, faster horse and younger women?. Big $$ in those 3d's, and uncle sam chalked up??? 125 gran. Well that's a good start.

Quote:

---

i never read the beer thread anymore. It should probably be deleted or paper shredded since it causes so much envy, greed and glutonlous thoughts. Not to mention it could cause a potential angry drunkedness.

---

lol