A mosquito’s proboscis — the long, thin bit that pierces the skin — makes an excellent nozzle for fine 3-D printing. The proboscis’ unique geometry and mechanics make it well-suited for the task, researchers report in the Nov. 21 Science Advances
The scientists call this “3-D necroprinting.” The term comes from necrobotics, a field that uses animal parts in high-tech machines — for example, spider legs repurposed into robotic grippers. Using a proboscis as a nozzle, mechanical engineer Changhong Cao and colleagues were able to print lines as fine as 20 micrometers, or about half the width of a fine human hair. This would allow them to print at an