ars technica – by Casey Johnston
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.
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/05/3d-printable-food-nasa-wants-a-taste/
I don`t think that I would want a taste. Probobly would taste like cardboard anyway, like a cheap pizza. lol
LOL
More like a WWII M.R.I.
LOL, yep Angel, is there a expiration date on those old M.R.I.`s. I bet that that printable food will last forever.
Doesn’t seem to be. Through the years, they always tasted like cardboard %!&#.
Dad kept prep boxes (metal ammo boxes that had 1st aid, tools, MRIs, etc.). Once in a while, he would pull an old MRI out and open it, just as a test (and learning experience for me).
Protein bars in all the colors of the rainbow! BARF!
Ha Ha, I wonder if it smells like anything, rhums…… P.S. I missed your reply button there rhumstruck, 🙂
hmm sounds like a George Jetson food synthesizer lol