3-D Printers Can Make Guitars, Pizza, and…Van Gogh’s Severed Ear?
3-D printers can make all kinds of things: makeup, pizza, guitars, and sneakers, to name just a few. But did you know they can also make…ears?
According to Al Jazeera, German artist Diemut Strebe did just that, creating a copy of Vincent van Gogh’s ear. The “technically alive’’ body part is on display at a the Center for Art and Media, or ZKM, a German museum.
Strebe accomplished the feat by using some of the Dutch artist’s genetic material (taken from Vincent van Gogh’s brother’s great-great-grandson, Lieuwe van Gogh). Lieuwe and Vincent van Gogh apparently share 1/16 of the same genes. Lucky us.
According to The Daily Beast, Strebe had two colleagues: Robert Langer, MIT, and Charles Vacanti, Harvard. The duo grew a human ear on the back of a mouse in 1995.
The German artist then took the genetic material and used a 3D-printer to shape the cells to resemble the ear.
You might be wondering how a severed body part is being kept “fresh.’’
Al Jazeera reports that the ear is being “kept alive’’ inside a case filled with “nourishing liquid’’ that could keep it from decomposing for years.
Vincent van Gogh famously cut off his own ear in a psychotic episode in 1888.
Bummed out that you can’t catch a flight to Germany to see the post-Impressionist’s organ?
You’re in luck.
Strebe told Al Jazeera she plans on displaying the ear in New York some time next year.
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