Day: October 21, 2014

ZigZag Revolver Unassembled

Screenshot, "3D Printed Guns First in the world 3D Zig Zag Revolver Made in Japan"

When the first working gun was 3-D printed in the United States, the government responded not through the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, but instead through the State Department. Guns, it turns out, aren’t terribly hard to get in the United States, so a 3-D printed gun doesn’t radically change gun access here. In countries with stricter gun control laws, though, printing a gun is a new risk. This week, Japan sentenced 28-year-old Yoshitomo Imura to two years in prison for printing guns and instructing others on how to print them.  

Imura printed a six-shot revolver known as the ZigZag. It fires .38 caliber bullets, same as those used in Defense Distributed’s original 3-D printed Liberator pistol. While the majority of the gun is printed plastic, it still has a few non-printed parts. Notably, these are pins, screws, a spring, and several rubber bands. Here’s a video of someone assembling a printed ZigZag revolver:

Japan isn’t the only country with tight gun control laws to address 3-D printed weapons. In Australia, which passed strong gun control measures following a 1996 massacre, police tested 3-D printed guns. Their tests highlight how likely it is for poorly-constructed guns to explode, portraying them as a major risk to the shooter as well as anyone standing in the vicinity. In October 2013, the United Kingdom launched a raid on suspected 3-D gun printers. The raid yielded only 3-D printer parts, not guns.

In the United States, 3-D printed guns are regulated by the Undetectable Firearms Act, which specifies that guns must be visible to metal detectors. Defense Distributed’s Liberator included a functionless 6-ounce metal bar in the handle for just this purpose. In the United States, detectability might be more important than just the creation of new weapons, but in countries without more than 200 million guns in private hands, the mere creation of a new gun is itself a new risk.

ZigZag Revolver Assembled

Screenshot, "3D Printed Guns First in the world 3D Zig Zag Revolver Made in Japan"

David Nicholls (left) and his son Dan, who is paralyzed. The Nicholls Spinal Injury Foundation provided funding for the research.

Nicholls Spinal Injury Foundation (nsif)

Four years ago, Darek Fidyka was stabbed in the back , leaving his spinal cord severed, and his body from the chest down paralyzed. Now, after an experimental treatment, Fidyka has regained some feeling in his lower body and is learning to walk again. 

The treatment, developed by researchers in the UK and Poland, involved removing one of Fidyka’s olfactory bulbs (the structures in the brain that allow you to smell) growing cells from the bulb, and then injecting those cells into the damaged area of Fidyka’s spinal cord. The researchers were interested in cells from the olfactory bulb in particular because the nerves in the olfactory system are the only part of the human nervous system known to regrow after being damaged, with the help of olfactory ensheathing cells. 

The researchers are looking to use less invasive techniques in the future, because undergoing brain surgery to extract the olfactory tissue isn’t anyone’s idea of a good time, much less someone who is paralyzed.  

The BBC reports that over 100 micro injections of olfactory ensheathing cells were injected into the injury site, and strips of nerve tissue from Fidyka’s ankle were laid across the gap in the spinal cord, in the hopes that the cells from the olfactory bulbs would encourage regrowth. A similar procedure had been sucessfully tested on dogs in 2012. 

Now, 19 months after the operation, Fidyka has regained sensation in parts of his lower body, and after intense physical therapy is able to walk using a walker. As an added bonus, even with one olfactory bulb removed, Fidyka retained his sense of smell. 

He told the BBC: "I think it’s realistic that one day I will become independent. What I have learned is that you must never give up but keep fighting, because some door will open in life."

The story is the subject of an episode of the BBC television program Panorama airing today at 10:35 pm in the UK. The study itself will be published in the journal Cell Transplantation at a later date, but the researchers acknowledge that as exciting as this result is, there is still a lot more work to be done. 

"Our results are very encouraging," the medical team is quoted as saying in a statement. "However, our results need to be confirmed in a larger group of patients with a similar injury. In the meantime, we are investigating surgical techniques for more minimally invasive access to the olfactory bulb."