This week’s Link Love: We hear from Russell Brand on the tragic loss of Robin Williams’, the best way to do dishes and how to make your own natural deodorant, as well as big news for Tesla lovers and 3D printed shoes?!

If you haven’t read it yet, Russell Brand’s commentary on Robin Williams’ death is outstanding. [via the Guardian]

Are you doing dishes the right way to conserve water? [via Eat Drink Better]

5 DIY natural deodorant recipes for healthy pits that don’t stink. [via Organic Authority]

What say you, Mr. Musk? Tesla may make green technology, but California might give it a pass on building green factories. [via Grist]

Why yes, these are 3D printed shoes. [via Ecouterre]

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Image via the Guardian

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3D printing got quite a slimy upgrade when researchers at MIT (where else?) employed 6,500 silkworms to help create a dome guided by computer technology.

The worms were unleashed onto 26 panels fitted with a string of silk thread and then guided by spatial and environmental cues. Changing the light and heat as well as the geometric density, MIT’s Media Lab professor Neri Oxman and her team were able to direct the silkworms and influence the outcome in the first 3D printing experiment using living creatures. “They swarmed over the structure’s surface and spun silk threads that ultimately created a dome that was equal parts Buckminster Fuller and Charlotte’s Web,” reported Wired.

Oxman and her team say the experiment with these “MakerBugs” offers many benefits, “The silkworm embodies everything an additive fabrication system currently lacks,” says Oxman. “It jets a structural material with superior function-specific variable properties; it’s small in size and mobile in movement; and it can spin, rather than print, non-homogeneous fibrous structures without waste. In more than one way, a silkworm is a sophisticated multi-material, multi-axis 3D printer.”

As well, the use of silkworms is more environmentally friendly than other building materials, reports Wired: “[T]he worms transform White Mulberry leaves into building material, their creations biodegrade over time, and when the job is done the worms turn into moths and fly away, leaving enough eggs behind to create approximately 250 more structures.”

The Silk Pavilion’s success shows potential for more architectural structures as well as advances in fashion design and relief efforts—being implemented in natural disaster areas to build temporary shelters could be one of the most exciting applications. “The project speculates about the possibility in the future to implement a biological swarm approach to 3D printing,” said Oxman. “Google is for information what swarm manufacturing may one day become for design fabrication.”

Keep in touch with Jill on Twitter @jillettinger

Image: dezeen

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The future is so bright, you might want to 3D-print yourself some shades.

Amid worries about what untraceable, printable firearms mean for the future of our society, don’t be fooled into thinking this is all the world of 3D printing has to offer. In fact, thanks to a community focused on open-source design, and the collaborative powers of the internet, 3D printers have already begun to change our world for the better.

Robohand

Richard van As is a carpenter who tragically lost two fingers in a woodworking accident. When he began searching for a prosthetic replacement that would restore the use of his hand, he was shocked to learn that the only market options started at $10,000. Determined to find a more affordable alternative, van As took to the internet, where he soon encountered Ivan Owen–a DIY enthusiast who posted a YouTube video about a mechanical hand he’d made for fun. A few Skype conversations later, the two became a team. The pair used their Makerbot 3D printers to send ideas back and forth. Within a year, they had a working protype they called “Robohand.” To celebrate the fruit of their collaboration, the pair donated the first 3D printed Robohand to Liam, a five year-old boy who was born without any fingers on his right hand. The design plans for Robohand are available on the internet for anyone to use, and many other disabled children have already benefited.

3D-Printed Food

If there’s one thing our culture loves, it’s customization. We want our name, face, and personality infused into everything–including food. A recent report from TechNewsDaily asserted that creating customized novelty food will be one of the main reasons for a crossover into 3D printed edibles. Last year, designer Ralf Holleis unveiled a 3D-printer that can be used to whip up a batch of intricately-designed, perfectly-shaped sweet snacks in a jiffy (pictured above). But not all 3D printed foods would be novelties. NASA recently invested $125,000 for the development of a 3D printer that could automate food creation in space, and eventually, here on Earth as well. The device will use cartridges of sugars, complex carbohydrates, and protein to assemble a nutritionally acceptable meals that never spoil.

Cleaner, More Self-Sufficient Cities

Transportation–of ourselves and the goods we need to survive–is a major source of planet-killing pollution. The interdependence caused by a global economy can backfire when a natural disaster or war interrupts the normal flow of things. In order for future cities to become more self-sufficient, we’ve got to restore the ability to make things around the corner from where they’re sold, something that 3D printing makes possible for just about anyone.

“3D printing creates its final product in one process – unlike conventional manufacturing which often demands extensive casting, forming and molding and assembling up to thousands of parts, some from distant locations,” writes Neal Pierce for the Washington Post Writers Group.

“This could spell big cutbacks in massive container ships and their ports, together with fuel-guzzling truck rigs crisscrossing continents,” Pierce adds. “The United States’ heavy reliance on overseas manufacturing, especially from China, could be cut back dramatically. The carbon footprint of today’s manufacturing and transport could be reduced substantially. 3D involves dramatically reduced waste and use of toxic materials in manufacturing and can ease the demand for such nonrenewable resources as rare earth minerals.”

Images: Watz, Robohand, Ralf Holleis, 666_is_money

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