Wake Forest’s Institute for Regenerative Medicine, a group of organ-growing, tissue-engineering mad scientists, is trailblazing the cool and creepy future of medicine. Their latest effort is an inkjet-inspired bioprinter that prints fresh cells directly onto wounds. More

If a printer doesn’t need toner, ink or copy paper, is it still a printer? Well, I guess if a bear still shits in a forest, then yes. Using plastic paper, it’s a very green (and pricey) way of printing. The PrePeat RP-3100 paper is actually made from PET plastic, which means it can be reused up to 1,000—so once your printed document is no longer needed, it can be inserted back in the printer, where the line thermal head prints the ink-less words on again. However eco-friendly it may be, there are some major downsides to the PrePeat RP-3100.

Clearly, 2010 is poised to be the “year of 3D. ” This includes movies, TV and maybe even “affordable” printers for small businesses. HP and Stratasys have teamed up to deliver a 3D printer that should cost less than $15,000. “This is the boldest step we have seen so far in 3-D printing,” says Scott Summit, chief technology officer for Bespoke Innovations, a company that creates 3-D artifacts for medical use. “A lot of people want to do 3-D printing but it is a mysterious world. With HP embracing it, it is likely to demystify the idea to many consumers.” “There are millions of 3-D designers using 2-D printers,” says Santiago Morera, vice president and general manager of HP’s large format printing business, in a statement.

I’m going to tell you a tale, a tale of friendship that, with the help of a Chinese automatic nail printer, blossomed into a full-out, wet and sticky bromance. There Jason and I were, walking through the International Center at CES, our shoulders brushing casually in the intimate walkways. Then we spotted a machine unlike any we’d seen before. A wizened Chinese man beckoned us into this booth, and before we could raise any objections, he placed his finger our our lips, a tacit acknowledgment that this was our first time.

Matthew Inman, aka “The Oatmeal,” is a former web designer turned comic artist . He subsists primarily on a diet of dead crickets and malt liquor. He also thinks that printers have a place in hell right next to unicorns. Reprinted with permission from Matthew Inman . You can see more of his work on The Oatmeal or in 5 Very Good Reasons to Punch a Dolphin in the Mouth , the comic book which he self published last year

If you’re a designer with a need for three-dimensional printing and $20,000 to spare, the uPrint Plus is right up your alley—it’s 33% bigger, 69% faster, and 40% more efficient than its predecessor. It may not play Daft Punk like the MakerBot —and it costs a whoooole lot more — but Dimension’s uPrint Plus is professional grade, small enough for desktop use and gives users resolution settings of either .010 inches or .013 inches and prints materials in nine colors. It’ll ship in March, hopefully by which time they’ll have figured out how to get me that 4D support I’ve been holding out for. World’s Best-Selling 3D Printer Line Expands Dimension uPrint Plus offers material colors, larger build volume, resolution options, and more MINNEAPOLIS—(BUSINESS WIRE)—One year after introducing what has become the world’s best-selling 3D printer - the Dimension uPrint - Stratasys (NASDAQ: SSYS) says it has expanded the product line with the uPrint Plus – an enhanced version with lots of new features – while still keeping the price under $20,000 (USD). Like the Dimension uPrint personal 3D printer, the uPrint Plus has a small footprint for true desktop use [25 x 26 in (635 x 660 mm)]. uPrint Plus can print in eight colors of Stratasys ABSplus material, making it easier for designers to differentiate individual assembly components and better depict their product

The Kirlian Photography Device uses high voltage discharges to capture beautiful, luminescent images directly from ordinary film. It is not a machine I’d recommend using in the darkroom. Kirlian photography, also known as electrography, isn’t anything new—we’ve looked at the technique before —but the Kirlian Photography Device wraps up all the necessary components into one machine. You just put your film on the discharge plate and the device zaps vibrant new life into your photographs. If you’ve made the jump to digital, an optional transparent discharge plate lets you use the technique with any regular, printed photograph

Epson’s PictureMate Show isn’t quite a sleek digital photo frame with hidden printer, but if you wanted to print 4×6 images at home (and nothing else), it’s a fairly elegant solution. Featuring a 7-inch LCD face, the Epson PictureMate Show is half digital photo frame, half small form photo printer. You can load images via USB or card reader, edit them using the display and then print them at a class-leading 5760×1440 dpi. The PictureMate Show is $300 and available now, but unless you’re printing stuff you really don’t want other people to see, I don’t really understand the economics or convenience of mass printing at home. [ Epson via Electronista ]

Our Black Friday List is updated with deals from Vizio, WireFly, HP and Amazon, including an entirely new page for Blu-rays and DVDs . That’s in addition to Best Buy, Office Depot , Dell, Target, Walmart, K-mart and more. Start saving here.

Our Black Friday List is updated with deals from Vizio, WireFly, HP and Amazon, including an entirely new page for Blu-rays and DVDs . That’s in addition to Best Buy, Office Depot , Dell, Target, Walmart, K-mart and more. Start saving here.