Dead Mosquitoes Make Surprisingly Good 3D-Printer Nozzles

Researchers at McGill University recently won the 2026 Ig Nobel Technology Prize for demonstrating that mosquitoes can be used for high-resolution 3D printing. The method repurposes deceased insects: their mouthpieces — “proboscides,” in the authors' terms — are carefully extracted and mounted to a 3D-printing system. There they act as the fluid deposition nozzles, in a process the team calls “3D necroprinting.” It is a reminder that a fine, hollow, precisely shaped tube is a fine, hollow, precisely shaped tube, whether or not its original owner was alive.