Volumetric 3D printing can create full objects in seconds, but wasted light has held it back. An EPFL team now redirects laser energy far more efficiently, producing larger, cleaner, cell-filled structures with gentler power, and pushing bioprinting closer to medical reality. A team of researchers at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, known as EPFL, has developed a major upgrade to a futuristic form of 3D printing that creates entire objects almost instantly using light. Their new method dramatically improves efficiency and precision, bringing scientists closer to printing large, tissue-like structures that could someday help repair the human body. The breakthrough centers on a technology called tomographic volumetric additive manufacturing, or TVAM. Unlike traditional 3D printers that build objects layer by layer, TVAM creates complete three-dimensional structures inside a rotating vial of liquid resin. Laser light hardens selected regions of the liquid until a finished object suddenly appears. In earlier versions of the technology, much of the laser’s energy was wasted. The EPFL team found a way to preserve far more of that power by …