Sonoma Company Using Tech to Tap Into Prehistory

A quiet unincorporated Sonoma Valley town marks the improbable intersection of the Palaeozoic Era and the Information Age.

In tiny Boyes Hot Springs, a Sonoma County company is using state-of-the-art technology to recreate prehistory.

And so far, the distant past and the technology of today seem to be getting along just fine.

Images in 3D, a subsidiary of Sonoma-based Images in Motion, earlier this year purchased two 3-D printers that it's using to create replicas of dinosaur skulls and bones for museum displays, the Santa Rosa Press Democrat reports.

First developed in 1984 according to PCMag, 3-D printers enable users to create in their homes what otherwise could only be built in a factory.

Potential applications of desktop manufacturing stretch the imagination.

Scientists have already used 3-D printers to recreate synthetic human tissue and could someday be used to create synthetic human organs according to a Los Angeles Times report.

The proliferation of 3-D printers in recent years, however, has stirred an ethical debate about their future applications.

That debate peaked earlier this year when a University of Texas law student posted an online blueprint for the 3-D printable firearm.

Cody Wilson, a 25-year-old self-described anarchist who supports gun ownership rights, eventually complied with a State Department request that he pull the "Wiki weapon" schematics, the New York Daily News reports.

The blueprints have been downloaded more 100,000 times and remain intact on file-sharing sites, the Daily News report.

The use of 3-D printing in Boyle Hot Springs seems to be evoking less controversy.

“I’ve been fascinated with 3-D printing for a long time,” Images in Motion co-founder Kamela Portuges told the Press Democrat.

“I love dinosaurs. It’s very exciting to be part of this."