Notre Dame students highlight method for 3D printing skeletons of living animals
![](https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/jXYKtnHOUfpTVzQld.Vc.w--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTI3MA--/https://s.yimg.com/uu/api/res/1.2/7zMy2mIONwpWatsgbBs4mg--~B/aD0xNzQ7dz02MTk7YXBwaWQ9eXRhY2h5b24-/https://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2013/04/ratskeleton3dprint.png)
Can you really claim to love your pet if you haven't printed out its skeletal structure for your mantle? Sure everyone expresses themselves in different ways, but the "3D Printing of Preclinical X-ray Computed Tomographic Data Sets" outlined by a team of Notre Dame students and a rep from MakerBot certainly beats getting your pet's face printed on a sweater. The researchers have outlined a method for CT scanning live mice, rats and rabbits and printing out their skeletal structures in plastic. There are some cool research applications for such functionality, but more importantly, who could ask for a creepier gift for the pet owner in your life?