3D Printing: From Levitation to a Fourth Dimension

Sound is all around us but there is more to acoustic waves than our ears perceive. If you have ever heard an explosion or listened to loud music you will have felt a physical force due to sound waves. In this talk I will show how this force can be used to levitate and move objects. I will explain how you can make your own acoustic tractor beam for about £50. I will also explain how this technology could be important to society, for example, moving cells, or small medical devices in medical applications. I will conclude by considering the future possibility of levitating much larger objects.

3D printers can make almost any shape with just one machine – but what if those prints could then adapt to what’s around them? That’s the dream of 4d printing, where 3D prints can go on changing over time. 4D printing researchers want to make umbrellas that know when it’s raining, medical implants that unroll in the body, satellites that unpack themselves and much more. But we’re not there just yet … Your speaker for tonight, Kate Oliver, is working on 4D printing using jelly and an open-source 3D printer. They’ll show you how to take this to the next dimension.