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A D V A N C E D M A T E R I A L S & P R O C E S S E S | O C T O B E R 2 0 1 8 4 6 STRESS RELIEF MAMMOTH SKELETON GETS 3D MAKEOVER Materialise NV, Belgium, is tackling its largest stereolithography project to date—a life-size, 3D-printed reconstruction of the first mammoth skeleton ever displayed in Western Europe. The 320 bones making up the skeleton were scanned, digitally reconstructed, and are now being printed, finished, and fit- tedwith a custom frame to hold up the skeleton. FromOctober on, the 3D-print- edmammoth will be on display in Lier, Belgium, the location where the original mammoth was found. Since 1869, the Mammoth of Lier had been displayed at the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences in Brussels. The entire skeleton will be 3D printed by Materialise, in close collaboration with the museum in Brussels, andmounted on a partially invisible internal structure. Applying one- tenth of a millimeter of resin at a time, the mammoth requires more than one month to print. It will then be coated with a combination of different paints, textures, and lacquers so the bones will match the original skeleton as closely as possible. materialise.com . JUST FOR LAUGHS Question: What do you do with a sick materials scientist? Answer: If you can’t helium, and you can’t curium, then you might as well barium. PLUTO SHOULD BE REINSTATED AS A PLANET According to new research from the University of Central Florida (UCF), the reason Pluto lost its planet status is not valid. In 2006, the International Astro- nomical Union (IAU) established a definition of a planet that required it to clear its orbit, or in other words, to be the largest gravitational force in its orbit. Be- cause Neptune’s gravity influences its neighboring planet Pluto, and Pluto shares its orbit with frozen gases and objects in the Kuiper belt, that meant Pluto was out of planet status. However, UCF planetary scientist Philip Metzger reports that this standard for classifying planets is not supported in the research literature. Metzger, lead author on a new study on the topic, reviewed scientific literature from the past 200 years and found only one publication—from 1802—that used the orbit-clear- ing requirement to classify planets and it was based on reasoning that has since been disproven. He says moons such as Saturn’s Titan and Jupiter’s Europa have been routinely called planets by planetary scientists since the time of Galileo. “The IAU definition would say that the fundamental object of planetary sci- ence, the planet, is supposed to be defined on the basis of a concept that nobody uses in their research,” explains Metzger. “It’s a sloppy definition. They didn’t say what they meant by clearing their orbit. If you take that literally, then there are no planets, because no planet clears its orbit.” Metzger says the definition of a planet should be based on its intrinsic properties, rather than ones that can change, such as the dynamics of a planet’s orbit. Instead, he recommends classifying a planet based on if it is large enough that its gravity allows it to become spherical in shape. “And that’s not just an arbitrary definition,” says Metzger. “It turns out this is an important milestone in the evolution of a planetary body, because apparently when it happens, it initiates active geology in the body.” For example, Pluto has an underground ocean, multilayer atmosphere, organic compounds, evidence of ancient lakes, and multiple moons. “It’s more dynamic and alive than Mars. The only planet that has more complex geology is the Earth,” says Metzger. ucf.edu. Regardless of the official definition, Pluto will always be considered a planet by its many fans. Courtesy of NASA. Materialise employee holds a 3D-printedmammoth bone. Courtesy of Materialise.