Overview
- University of Amsterdam physicists printed an approximately 8-centimeter tree in about 26 minutes using only water inside a vacuum chamber.
- Rapid evaporation supercooled a roughly 16‑micrometer jet, causing deposited layers to solidify upon impact without refrigeration equipment.
- A brief ~0.5‑second freezing delay let droplets merge into continuous lines before crystallization propagated through each layer.
- The setup integrates a jet nozzle into a commercial 3D printer inside a transparent chamber, requires no additives or support material, and melts back to clean water when the vacuum is released.
- The team highlights potential applications in tissue scaffolds, microfluidic channel formation, and Mars-based construction, though these remain speculative and unvalidated beyond the preprint stage.