Plans to 3D print an entire neighbourhood

Iowa State University will be using its giant 3D printer to manufacture affordable homes for a rural town.

The College of Design’s 3D Affordable Innovative Technologies Housing Project, funded in part by a $1.4 million grant, will build the neighbourhood in Hamburg, Iowa, a rural town that was severely damaged by flooding in 2019.

The giant 3D printer features an overhead gantry system with a computer nozzle that dispenses concrete and can build an entire home in a matter of days. The Hamburg neighbourhood project will help the team “understand design, affordability, zoning and building codes, community engagement and training” for when the project expands to other locations.

CT scan ‘digitally unwraps’ Amenhotep I mummy

Scientists used a computed tomography scan to ‘digitally unwrap’ the 3,500-year-old mummy of Egyptian Pha­raoh Amenhotep I, revealing new details about his death, burial and early restoration efforts, a research paper showed.

It was the first time anyone’s had a look underneath the linen of the mummy carefully preserved since the11th century B.C., when embalmers rewrapped the pharaoh after it was damaged by grave robbers.

The CT scan showed that Amenhotep I had “good teeth” at the time of his death, indicating he was around 35 years old. He was five feet, six inches tall and his remains showed no obvious cause of death.

Amenhotep I seems to have physically resembled his father. Within his wrappings, he had 30 amulets and his arms were crossed, the earliest known example of a New Kingdom mummy with this positioning. The mummy was covered by a mask made of cartonnage, layers of linen or papyrus covered with plaster, with inlaid stone eyes.

The mummy was discovered in 1881 among other reburied royal mummies at Deir el Bahari, a location where many royal mummies were taken for protection from grave robbers. This was one of few left untouched by researchers, because of its remarkably intact condition. It is kept at the National Museum of Egyptian Civilisation in Cairo.

Family with most albino siblings

A British family of six brothers and sisters was awarded a Guinness World Record in the category of most albino siblings.

Coventry, England, residents Naseem Akhtar, Ghulam Ali, Haider Ali, Muqadas Bibi, Musarat Begum and Mohammed Rafi received the title after Guinness World Records. All six siblings were born with albinism, a genetic condition that causes a person to lack pigment in their skin, hair and irises.

Naseem Akhtar, whose parents also have albinism, said, “Over time, I have now come to like my condition because it makes me very unique. Being Asian but being white, it gives me a unique outlook on life, it gives me a very unbiased opinion of society and humanity. I like who I am, and the human being I became.”

Published in Dawn, Young World, January 15th, 2022