By Marsha Lewis, Inside Science

(Inside Science TV) –   You've seen toys and prosthetics made on a 3-D printer but now, scientists are using 3-D printers to build implants that help babies breathe.

Natalie Peterson, a parent of a child who was having trouble breathing shortly after birth said of her son Garrett, “When he was born, he was so sensitive to everything…when the nurses would move his head, he would just turn blue instantly.”

Almost every day 18 month old Garrett Peterson stopped breathing due to a collapsed trachea.

By:  Karin Heineman, Inside Science

(Inside Science TV) – Dogs and cats can suffer from some of the same illnesses as humans such as allergies, cancer and even Alzheimer's disease. Currently pets are often given drugs designed for the human body that may not work the same way in the body of another species.

For example, dogs with allergies are often prescribed the popular allergy drug Allegra. But, the formula was not designed for use by a dog and may not work correctly.

Now, researchers at Kindred Biosciences in Burlingam, California are developing new drugs made just for pets.

Researchers in Indonesia are releasing the parasitic wasp Anagyrus lopezi in an attempt to save cassava crops from destructive mealybugs.

Credit:CIAT International Center for Tropical Agriculture .Rights information: http://bit.ly/otwhKG

By: Ker Than, Inside Science. 

(Inside Science) -- Scientists today released 2,000 South American parasitic wasps in Indonesia as part of a project aimed at thwarting an invasive insect pest that is devastating the country’s cassava food crop.

Credit: Image of map courtesy of the USGS and composite image by Patricia Waldron

By: Patricia Waldron, Inside Science

(Inside Science) -- People living in Afghanistan have mined precious gems from their land, such as lapis lazuli, since the times of the Egyptian pharaohs. But modern analyses of the country's mineral deposits show that the Afghan people have barely scratched the surface of their mineable wealth.

By Marsha Lewis, Inside Science

(Inside Science TV) – One of the deadliest forces on earth is the humble mosquito. Mosquito-borne diseases like malaria, chikungunya, yellow fever and West Nile virus infect more than 350 million people and kill another 1 million people every year.

Now, scientists in Florida hope to wipe out some of these deadly diseases by genetically modifying their winged carriers.

“Mosquitoes are probably the most dangerous animal in the world. More people are killed by them [than] by anything else," said Michael Doyle, an entomologist at the Florida Keys Mosquito Control District in Key West, Florida.