Necroprinting – Dead mosquito proboscis used for high-resolution 3D printing
tomshardware.comThat's pretty cool. Must be a fiddly job to anchor it into the rest of the system.
> Moreover, current commercial tips that fit this spec are made of either non-biodegradable plastic or metal.
I'm not sure saving at most the few micrograms (the entire mosquito is only a handful of milligrams) of plastic here is really a major factor. Probably there are orders of magnitude more plastic in the tape on the box that they would ship it in.
Also not very clear how it can be 100% finer than current tips!
Maybe it's just the inside diameter that got 100% smaller. So there actually is a physical object that can exist. Which is about a cat hair.
Anything that gets 100% smaller is just gone.
If it's only the inside diameter that shrunk by 100% then it's only the hole that's gone, not the whole thing. The wall can still be as thick as it wants. If it were the outer diameter that shrunk by 100% then the entire thing would be gone, as you rightly said.
I'm just giving them the benefit of the doubt :D
How much can you squeeze through no hole? I have more doubt than you :)
I did the math. It's about the exact same as you can squeeze through the thing if it did not physically exist at all.
My conclusion is that whether the inner or the other diameter is the one that shrank only affects aesthetics, not functionality.
> not very clear how it can be 100% finer than current tips!
By being vaporware