3D printing rhino horns

From This Way Up 13 July 2015

A San Francisco biotech company, Pembient, is trying to make substitute rhino horns in the lab.

Rhino horn can sell for up to US$100,000 a kilo, making it more expensive per gram than gold, platinum or cocaine.

The poaching and illegal hunting of rhinos for their horns has pushed some species, like the black rhino, close to extinction.

But could technology help save the rhino? A San Francisco biotech company called Pembient is trying to make substitute rhino horns in the lab using a mix of genetics and 3-D printing techniques.

The bioengineered horns are all but identical to the real thing, and cost a lot less. Also many consumers seem willing to accept these lab-made products in place of wild rhino horns.

3D printing rhino horn.

Pembient rhino horn. Photo: Darson Du.

Powdered synthetic rhino horn. Photo: Darson Du.

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