This may sound like a creepy Halloween story, but roboticists and academics around the world are researching the use of 3D printers to create body parts.

Based on an invention of Charles Hull in 1986 called stereolithography, 3D printers use additive technology in which objects are built up in layers. Currently being used for many applications in a variety of industries including industrial design, architecture, engineering and construction, automotive, aerospace, dental, education, and civil engineering, a 3D printer may soon be making the replacement kidney that Uncle Harry is waiting for.

Already, scientists have been able to reproduce bones using this technology, and biotech firms and academia are currently studying its use for tissue engineering applications where organs and body parts are reproduced. Layers of living cells are deposited onto a gel medium and slowly built up to form three dimensional structures.

Check out this video as Cornell University scientists test making an ear using a 3D printer.

I can’t help but think of Monty Python & the Holy Grail and Young Frankenstein movies of the ‘70’s when I see this! “Bring Out Yer Dead!”