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Each week
The Economist's Editor in Chief, John Micklethwait, selects a
number of articles from the latest edition of the newspaper as
recommended reading. His selection is called the Editor's Highlights.
You can receive this regularly
by e-mail, or view his top picks below.
February 12th - 18th 2011
Print me a
Stradivarius
This week we focus
on a development that hardly anybody has heard of, but we reckon is
going to change everybody's lives. It's a new manufacturing technology
called 3D printing, which is just beginning to take off. It creates
objects by putting down thin layers of materials—thus dramatically
cutting manufacturing costs, and making it cheaper to produce small
runs or single items. This technology has huge implications: it
dispenses with assembly lines, makes factories unnecessary, enables
mass customisation and lowers barriers to entry in manufacturing, thus
encouraging innovation.
Also, you maybe interested in:
The shoe-thrower's index
Where in the Arab world unrest is likely to happen next
Mobile phones
How Nokia—and Europe as a whole—lost their edge
Africa's wealth
Impressive growth rates are not all good news
Japan's tea party
A small revolt against the size of government
How to switch off the internet, in Egypt and elsewhere
Easier for some governments than for others
