New world of 3-D printing offers "completely new ways of thinking": Q&A with author, engineer, and 3-D printing expert Hod Lipson.

With stories about everything from a three-?dimensional (3-D)-printed tracheal implant used in an infant to a 3-D-printed replacement for 75% of a man?s skull, a media firestorm is swirling around this seemingly new technology, but what exactly is 3-D printing? How is it being used today, and what is its true potential in the biomedical arena? Renowned robotics engineer Hod Lipson, coauthor of Fabricated: The New World of 3D Printing [1], and director of the Creative Machines Lab at Cornell University?s Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering in Ithaca, New York, spent some time with IEEE Pulse in a wide-ranging conversation about the past, present, and future of 3-D printing and its implications for biomedical engineering.