3D printed spine

Every spine is unique, just like a fingerprint.

September 02, 2025

Tuesday again. And I’m back in your inbox!

Before we get started, I need to be honest with you.

I miss you!!

I haven’t heard from many of you since our last stickers were sent out… so let’s sweeten the deal:

Everyone who replies this week gets entered for a mystery reward. I'm not telling you what it is, but it's definitely worth more than a sticker.

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There's a really exciting webinar happening October 2nd that caught my attention - "From Data to Asset Delivery: A Reimagined Approach" hosted by ENR and Transcend.

October 2nd, 2:00 PM EDT, free registration. Worth checking out if you want to streamline your design workflow and actually reuse the work you've already done.

A lot. But just see what Boston Dynamics achieved before we dive in 😓

Okay getting back to other stuff that’s less scary:

You know how welding works: you heat up two pieces of metal and add filler wire to make them stick together properly.

Fraunhofer researchers basically figured this out without the extra metal 👀

They developed laser welding with dynamic beam shaping that makes perfect welds without any filler material. Instead of adding metal, they use targeted oscillation of the laser beam to move the melt pool around, which reduces pores and creates metallurgically stable joints.

The results: crack-free, low-porosity seams that are stronger than traditional welds.

For steel construction, this saves up to 90 percent filler material and eliminates the distortion that usually requires manual straightening afterward.

They tested it on a four-meter crane boom and the welds came out perfect.

"Every spine is unique, just like a fingerprint."

That's what Dr. Joseph Osorio from UC San Diego Health said after performing the world's first custom anterior cervical spine surgery.

Here's how spine surgery usually goes: surgeons remove a damaged disc and insert a standard implant. One size fits all, even though obviously no two spines are actually identical.

This creates alignment issues, healing complications, and sometimes you need more surgeries later because the implant doesn't quite fit right.

Dr. Osorio's team captured detailed scans of the patient's neck to measure the spine precisely. AI-assisted planning determined the exact implant design, which was then 3D printed in medical-grade titanium.

The implant was made specifically for this one person's exact spine measurements.

The patient gets better alignment, fewer complications, and faster recovery because everything fits exactly as it should.

Dr. Osorio thinks this is just the beginning: "We see a future where every implant: spine, hip, or knee is designed for one person, not mass-produced for everyone."

The era of one-size-fits-all medical devices just ended.

NatPower got approval to build a £1bn battery storage facility that can hold 8,000 megawatt-hours of energy.

To put that in perspective, this thing could power 300,000 homes or run a small city for hours.

But here's what makes it interesting: the infrastructure is designed from the outset to power ships at berth, eliminating emissions while docked.

Think massive cargo vessels plugging in like electric cars instead of burning diesel fuel while they're parked at port.

The facility stores surplus renewable electricity from offshore wind when production is high, then releases it instantly during periods of peak demand or low generation.

The widespread deployment of large-scale, long-duration storage like this could save the UK energy system up to £3.5 billion a year.

By 2028, Teesside will have a 32-acre energy storage facility that can power cities and charge ships.

TLDR: Clean energy infrastructure just got supersized.

Have you ever wondered why we don't have 400 mph trains yet?

I mean, we figured out how to make planes go 600 mph decades ago.
Why can't trains do the same?

TLDR: Aerodynamic drag. Definition: The invisible wall that stops everything

When a train hits around 186 mph, something terrible happens to the physics.

At this speed, aerodynamic drag reaches more than 80% of total resistance.

The resistance follows what's called the Davis equation: CVt² - the train aerodynamic drag is proportional to the square of the train speed.

Translation: if you want to go twice as fast, you need four times the power just to push through the air.

At train speeds, you're essentially trying to punch a hole through an increasingly solid wall of air molecules.

The three criminals stealing your speed

Chinese researchers at Central South University spent months analyzing exactly where all this drag comes from on a 248 mph train.

They found that the aerodynamic drag accounted for large proportions from the head, pantograph, and bogie.

Here's why each of these creates physics problems:

The pantograph problem: That arm on top that collects electricity from overhead wires creates massive turbulence because it  acts like a giant spoon stirring the air above the train, creating vortices that drag the whole vehicle backward.

The bogie chaos: Every axle, brake disc, and suspension component sticking into the airflow creates its own turbulence underneath the train.

The nose bottleneck: Even the most streamlined train nose creates a high-pressure bubble that the entire train has to push through.

What did they do??

They modified all 3. 

They tested the drag on trains running at high speeds with different streamlined lengths, train heights, depths of pantograph platforms, pantograph structures, bogie fairings, and bottom plates.

The streamlined nose was extended to 49.2 feet and the train height was reduced, creating massive aerodynamic benefits.

“The redesigned low-drag pantograph, featuring optimized geometry, demonstrated promising performance gains,” says Wang. “Additionally, certain uneven bogie fairing configurations might offer advantages over traditional flush designs in specific applications.”

The team put together drag reduction schemes for each area and came up with a design that showed aerodynamic drag getting reduced by up to 22.11 percent compared to the original model.

Yup. 

Twenty-two percent.

For context: most aerodynamic improvements in any transportation field are measured in single digits. Getting 5% drag reduction is considered a major win. Getting 10% is career-defining.

Getting 22% makes you wonder what else we've been doing wrong.

What happens next

China has tested the CR450 train, which can reach a maximum speed of 281 mph. In commercial operations, it runs at speeds of 249 mph.

If you can cut drag by 22% at 248 mph, applying the same principles to push for 350+ mph becomes possible.

The current world record for wheeled trains is 357 mph, set by a modified French TGV in 2007. That record suddenly looks breakable.

We might be about to find out how much speed we've been leaving on the table.

PS: We're talking about fast trains when I thought we'd be talking about flying cars by now 😂👀

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