Long-time readers of my site no doubt know of my fascination with the field of 3D printing and tracking the advances that are made almost weekly to this technology. From simple plastic tchotchkes to replacement parts to materials that few ever dreamed would be used, 3D fabbers are fast becoming an integral part of manufacturing at all levels of complexity. A few months ago researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory published the results for a revolutionary 3D printer called the Optomec Aerosol Jet 500, a fabber which uses a range of nanomaterials as its feedstock. To cut to the chase …

..and I don't mean the finance company.

I know this is late in coming, but real life has a better framerate sometimes. Anyway, a security research outfit called Secure Medicine, following in the footsteps of security researcher Gadi Evron raised some interesting questions about the current generation of biomedical cardiac implants in use these days, such as pacemakers and LVADs (left ventricular assist devices). Due to the fact that these devices are remotely controllable to a certain extent via wireless data link they are vulnerable to compromise by attackers and may be manipulated. This sounds asanine, but LVADs are implanted …