Researchers have printed a teeny, tiny version of Star Trek’s U.S.S. Voyager

SEM images of various 3D printed particle shapes as obtained by two-photon polymerisation. (a) A spiky sphere, (b) a starship, (c) a spiral, (d) a helix, (e) a trimer and (f) 3D benchy boat. Image Soft Matter (2020)

OCTOBER 30, 2020 - What’s the smallest starship you’ve ever seen? Excluding shuttles, of course. Is it the Miranda class? The Daedalus class? Ooh, the Defiant?

With news this week from Leiden University via PCGamer.com, that distinction now held by (drumroll please) the Intrepid class. Yes, just like the U.S.S. Voyager.

PC Gamer reported this week on a new study by a group of researchers from Leiden University in The Netherlands, who have been testing a microscopic 3D printer as part of research into artificial microswimmers. (Yes, you’ve heard of Leiden University before; they made the news last year for carrying out field demonstrations of a Star Trek-like scanner that could detect life at a distance.)

Those researchers used their microscopic printer to print a selection of objects for testing purposes, including helices, weird lollipop things, a 3D Benchy tugboat, and a very, very tiny model of an Intrepid class starship. Coming in at around 15 microns, it’s by far the smallest Star Trek ship on record.

According to PC Gamer, while messing around with a microscopic 3D printer might seem like just a bit of fun, eventually the research is expected to contribute to understanding biological microswimmers better: things like sperm, bacteria and blood cells.

In other words, even in microscopic form, the U.S.S. Voyager is doing her fair share as a science vessel.