3D printers are cool tech, and have now passed into the realms of affordability with devices like the thing-o-matic, but what if they could be used to print skin as well as plastic and paper models? This is what scientist Hod Lipson from Cornell University is proposing.

At the annual meeting of the American Association of the Advancement of Science in Washington DC Hod Lipson demonstrated how a 3D printer could be used to create an ear. Using silicon gel, instead of the real cells which would normally be used, and a scan of a real ear a new one was created within half an hour.

So far the technology has only been tested on animals where it has proved successful especially with printed cartilage which is simple to make and resilient to the printing process compared to other organic materials. The next step for the experiment will be to create more complex tissue such as bone and liver.

Another similar proposed tech is a bioprinter which would be used to treated burnt soldiers in the battlefield, which scans the depth of a soldiers' wound and prints out the necessary layers of skin. It's still early days for both technologies but they could go mainstream within 20 years.