Injured Bald Eagle Gets New 3-D Printed Beak 103
An anonymous reader writes "A bald eagle that lost its beak to a poacher's gun receives a 3-D printed beak prosthetic like a dental implant."
More (with pictures): "Mr Calvin, a founder of the Boise-based Kinetic Engineering Group, made a mold of Beauty's shattered upper mandible, laser-scanned it, fine-tuned it in a 3D modeling program, and created a prosthetic beak from a nylon-based polymer."
Will it survive UV breakdown? (Score:1, Interesting)
Will leach chemicals into the eagle that will cause health problems? Will it give fish a bad taste?
Re:Will it survive UV breakdown? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Will it survive UV breakdown? (Score:5, Insightful)
Inquisitive means "inclined to ask questions", not "inclined to ask intelligent questions."
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"There's no such thing as a stupid question, but there sure are a lot of inquisitive idiots."
That said, I approve of potentially making a fool of oneself in an effort to cease being one.
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In any case, fish will probably taste better than hand-feeding it with the flesh of Anonymous Cowards.
But far less satisfying...
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Did you watch the video embedded in the story? It's unbelievable how all the science was stripped out and replaced with awful bullshit attempts at heightening the emotional content of the story, to the point of hilarity. Shame on you, shitty news producers.
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Yeah, it was pretty easy to see through the BS on that one...
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You have teeth, lips, and hands. Birds don't.
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Aw, what a brave little soldier. But look, you don't have to suffer anymore. We've already demonstrated the capability. I'm going to start a collection and by God we're going to get you a beak!
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1 Most likely they used a plastic that will not degrade in UV (at least in the eagles lifetime)
2 I would think no
3 no more than any of the other 30,000 things in the environment will/ it might even IMPROVE the taste of the fish
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nylon
Chinese manufactured nylon often contains DDM, which is dangerous if directly ingested. The articles don't detail the specific makeup of the polymers used, so even if they happened to not research this particular issue I'm sure as others have responded that the risk
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I thought we use latex to wrap meat.
Oh sorry. Wrong kind of meat.
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I doubt it. From what I can gather from the story the same material and glue that are used for dental work were used. I'm not getting any odd tastes from my crowns.
Too realistic (Score:4, Funny)
They really had an opportunity here. What would be cooler than a bald eagle with a shiny carbon-fiber-and-titanium beak? Maybe make him some razor sharp metal talons too. That would give the poachers pause!
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Just think of the bond villain possibilities!!
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They really had an opportunity here. What would be cooler than a bald eagle with a shiny carbon-fiber-and-titanium beak? Maybe make him some razor sharp metal talons too. That would give the poachers pause!
This one was never to be one of metal-beak's tytos. His gizzard is better than that!
Lasers? (Score:2)
They should have added lasers.
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And North Korea, Iran, and Muslims in general!
I'm thinking we should update our 'national bird' to something more Terminator-like anyway.
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I'm thinking we should update our 'national bird' to something more Terminator-like anyway.
It'll be beak?
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State of the art dentistry uses CAD/CAM. 3D imaging creates base model which is tweaked by dental technician then created in an automatic milling machine. Takes about 45 minutes and eliminates a second visit (think one round of anesthesia).
Not sure that 3D printing could make anything nearly as strong as necessary for a tooth.
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Additive processes can work stainless steel and titanium with relatively little loss in overall strength compared to castings, so there's little question that 3D printing can make teeth or a beak that are strong enough. Metal-based printing is, as I understand i
Re:Just when I thought (Score:5, Informative)
That 3D printing couldnt get any more awesome, something like this comes out of nowhere an proves that, yes, it can!
What implications does this hold for humans?aube we could get 3D printe false teeth with A faster turn-around than current moulding techniques.
I actually have such a tooth. I went into the dentist's office. He scanned my mouth with a 3d scanner, then used software to model the missing tooth. Then, the software sent the output to a milling machine, with a ceramic-on-metal blank. Total time, less than an hour from scanning my mouth to implanted tooth. I already had an implant grafted to my jawbone, so this was just the crown, but still, I was very impressed.
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Wow, the crown I have got sent out to the lab and took a few weeks of having a temporary crown.
That's actually fairly impressive.
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I can't wait for 3D printing to become highly regulated so that innovation stops dead in its tracks!
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Only beauty (Score:1)
"I think I can help you with Beauty if you are interested." he said.
Unfortunately, the prosthesis is not anchored securely enough to return Beauty to the wild, but she now can feed herself and preen her feathers.
The new beak is not good enough for the eagle to be in the wild but beauty... At least it shows potential that there may be an improvement to match the original (nature) in the future. Either way, I hope that it will always be kept in good intention of use of 3D printer (such as this example in the article).
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And since this story occurred in 2008, the bird has experienced some natural beak growth and the bionic beak has had to come off.
old news (Score:1)
really , really old news here.
Now... (Score:4, Funny)
Now just to give it a 3d-printed gun, so it can go get revenge on the poacher who shot it.
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I prefer the one that ends with an animal version of Batman.
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animal version of Batman.
In order to strike fear into the hearts of animal criminals, I take the form of their worst nightmares. I am... Humanbird!
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Guns are pretty tricky to print. It might be easier just to order a 3d-printed HDTV from Amazon.
animal prosthetics (Score:5, Funny)
I was recently asked by a client to 3D print some replacement parts for his pet duck.
But he balked when I gave him the bill.
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I was recently asked by a client to 3D print some replacement parts for his pet duck.
But he balked when I gave him the bill.
worst... pun... evar... :-)
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What?? Are you kidding??
I'm quacking up over here!
Re:animal prosthetics (Score:5, Funny)
I was recently asked by a client to 3D print some replacement parts for his pet duck.
But he balked when I gave him the bill.
That joke is just foul.
*ducks*
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*ducks*
... I see what you did there.
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Well you're quite the loon.
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I was recently asked by a client to 3D print some replacement parts for his pet duck.
But he balked when I gave him the bill.
Come on.
Chicken. Squawked.
Chickens. Beaks.
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Well naturally! Everyone knows that when your duck gets a quack you use duck tape.
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He probably accused you of being a quack.
Re:So now our national mascot gets plastic surgery (Score:4, Insightful)
I know this is a random AC posting something meant to be humorous but I have to chime in: Plastic surgery was originally developed to repair damage by accident, injury or disease. Fixing an eagle's beak would actually be the exact purpose of plastic surgery as originally developed.
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Plastic surgery was originally developed to repair damage by accident, injury or disease.
And still is, called restorative plastic surgery, as opposed to cosmetic which is the more common and commonly known type today.
In high school, I saw a slideshow presentation by a restorative plastic surgeon. It was like 80 slides of 3rd degree burns, skin grafts, feet caught in paper shredders, and on and on. One of the first slides was a little girl who'd been hit in the face by a tire kicked off by an accident on the other side of the road. You could see her teeth through her cheek.
Several students th
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* reconstrucive. Or maybe both. *shrug*
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I'd rate this more as 'cosmetic dentistry' than 'plastic surgery' though.
I didn't think this was new news (Score:2)
I first heard about this in 2009, when I went to the Solidworks 2010 launch event in Boise.
Maybe because I am involved in the local Solidworks community, it is old news here. It was pretty fun event getting to meet the guys who did this, exam the various iterations of beaks
I am actually surprised it took this long to make it to main stream news.
What we need to do (Score:2)
All jokes aside, its pretty damn cool.
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Who said it would be a joke. Ill kick in 20 bucks.
Disney and Cocteau are fighting now (Score:2)
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+1 for actually knowing who Cocteau is. Now you know there's at least one other person on /. who knew (and has seen the movie) without resorting to wikipedia or imdb .
Now -- does anyone else remember the double-features which changed daily at "Hark, Hark! The Clark!" theatre in Chicago?
3D printing the new bitcoin? (Score:3)
I can't wait to read 5 new and exciting 3D printing stories each and every day!
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Screw that, I want to hear more about Apple and Samsung fighting like two kids in the back seat.
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... which you could spend to get Apple and Samsung to fight....
The prosthetic beak has been removed. (Score:2, Informative)
FTFA:
"Beauty continues to thrive under our care without her upper beak. The new growth pushed out the hardware which anchored the prosthetic beak."
Well, good. 2D beaks never worked well. (Score:2)
And those 1 D beaks? The chicks just don't dig them.
RFTA before submitting... (Score:3)
I emailed Birds of Prey Northwest for an update on Beauty and received this reply yesterday from Ms Fink (Cantwell):
Beauty continues to thrive under our care without her upper beak. The new growth pushed out the hardware which anchored the prosthetic beak. Recently the small amount of new growth has allowed Beauty to do something she has not been able to do since her injury-eat independently. We have constructed a special feeding platform for her and she now feeds herself! We are looking to the future as we measure her minute growth and construct a new plan of attachment. Construction of the beak is the easy part, it is the attachment that is the challenge. Recently, her 2008 procedure videoed by a Seattle news team, was made available on Vimeo and we have had lots of inquiries. Some have suggested that Beauty has a much greater educational impact WITHOUT her beak. When the prosthetic was in place, her story is lost at first glance. Time will tell whether she goes through life with or without a beak. In the meantime, she will remain in north Idaho under my care where she is cherished and well cared for.
Old news, and completely out of date now. The 3D printed beak happened in 2008, and it will no longer work due to growth that pushed out the mounting brackets. Beauty does not have an upper beak now, though the growth is allowing her to eat without the prosthetic.
Very cool... But cruel. (Score:1)
But bird beaks count as one of the structural marvels of the world - They weigh nothing, last a lifetime, and have incredible strength. A printed plastic beak, even ignoring issues like how it fits, will break and fall off within a few months, leaving the poor thing to starve to death.
So unfortunately, as well intentioned as it sounds, I have to consider this nothing short of cruel. Save the
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Try reading the article.
The bird was never going back into the wild again. The 3d printed beak has come off due to natural growth of the beak and is no longer being used. The animal is not starving to death now that some beak has grown back.
How about the next time you are injured we put you out of your misery?
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What, and ruin a perfectly good Slashdot tradition? Meh.
How about the next time you are injured we put you out of your misery?
DNR / DNI, baby! Please do!
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Clearly someone just needs to install FreeBSD on their 3D-printed toaster.
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If Linux was any indication, it will probably be when somebody 3D prints a dead badger.
And then installs NetBSD on it.
Because as everyone knows, the GNU/Linux/Badger386 port has been unmaintained and stagnant since 1998.
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This eagle can't be un-shot until the time machine has been 3D printed.
And that's never going to happen. Proof: If a time machine were ever invented someone from the future would have come back in time by now.
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But how about *not* shooting an innocent individual in the first place?
Or at least create something that allows the nerves and everything to grow back inside.
I'm sorry, but unshooting is not one of your available options, and at this point neither is something that allows nerves and everything to grow back inside (at least inside the timeframe required to get the bird up the in air again). Complaining about it doesn't change things.
The options are plastic beak or death.
Strength (Score:1)
I seem to recall reading that printed components are only about 10-30% of the strength of components made by alternative techniques e,g, injection mo(u)lding.
Would it not have been a good idea to create a mo(u)ld around this component and then create a much stronger beak?
Guns are the ruination of America? (Score:2)
Riiiiiight. And you're THE editor of grist.org. Guns ruined America... You look at America, and chief amongst its problems are things that you think guns cause? Seriously? Well, welcome to my little corner of communist household!
>squid.conf
acl SmallMinded dstdomain
http_access deny SmallMinded
Injured bird or injured America? (Score:1)
I’ve seen so many bald eagles crying a single tear over terrorism or gay marriage or whatever that it’s really hard not to interpret this as some kind of metaphor about America. Ruined by guns, kept alive by nonprofits, technology comes to the rescue? Sure, I think it works.
Now if we can only get a 3d printed deficit reduction...
Why not? It works for humans. (Score:1)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CEREC [wikipedia.org]
I've got two of them myself.