From dental braces to astronauts’ seats

EVER since 3D printing—the ability to construct solid objects by building them up, a layer at a time, in plastic or metal—hit public consciousness a couple of years ago, comment has veered towards two extremes. Fans, often in America, insist it will have a dramatic impact, undermining the economics of mass production and repatriating jobs to the West. According to the Harvard Business Review, “China will have to give up on being the mass-manufacturing powerhouse of the world.” Critics denounce it as overblown hype—“a gimmick” according to Terry Gou, the boss of Foxconn, a manufacturing giant in China: he says he will start spelling his name backwards if he is proved wrong.