Snip!t from collection of Alan Dix

<p>Earlier this week <a href="http://csironewsblog.com/2014/01/06/accelerating-our-dragon-rd-program/">we posted about a letter</a> we received from Sophie, a 7-year-old girl. All she wanted was a dragon.</p> <div id="attachment_13376" style="width: 600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="http://csironewsblog.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/letter.jpg"><img class="size-large wp-image-13376" alt="letter" src="http://csironewsblog.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/letter.jpg?w=590&amp;h=785"></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Sophie&#x2019;s very polite letter.</p></div> <p>&#x201c;Our work has never ventured into dragons of the mythical, fire breathing variety.&nbsp;And for this Australia, we are sorry,&#x201d;&nbsp;we replied.</p> <p>Sophie&#x2019;s letter, and our response, made an unexpected splash across the globe. It was featured on <a href="http://newsfeed.time.com/2014/01/09/australian-national-science-agency-apologizes-to-little-girl-for-lack-of-dragon-research/">TIME</a>, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/09/sophie-lester_n_4562374.html">Huffington Post</a>, <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/australasia/australian-science-agency-apologises-to-little-girl-for-failing-to-make-her-a-dragon-9048430.html">The Independent</a>,&nbsp;<a href="http://shine.yahoo.com/parenting/sorry--sophie---there-are-no-dragons--but-we%E2%80%99re-working-on-that-192141149.html">Yahoo</a>, <a href="http://youtu.be/u0tOTeVJV0A">Breakfast TV</a>, the list goes on.&nbsp;People contacted us offering to help, financial institutions <a href="https://twitter.com/StGeorgeBank/status/421159329379532800">tweeted their support</a> and <a href="http://www.dreamworksstudios.com/">DreamWorks Studios</a> phoned (seriously), saying they knew how to train dragons and wanted to speak with Sophie. The dreams of one little girl went viral.</p> <p>We couldn&#x2019;t sit here and do nothing. After all, we promised Sophie we would look into it.</p> <p>So this morning at 9:32 a.m. (AEDT), a dragon was born.</p> <div id="attachment_13401" style="width: 600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="http://csironewsblog.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/3d_toothless.jpg"><img class="size-large wp-image-13401" alt="3D_Toothless" src="http://csironewsblog.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/3d_toothless.jpg?w=590&amp;h=392"></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Toothless, born today, is a blue female dragon. Species: Seadragonus giganticus maximus</p></div> <p><span style="line-height:1.5em;">Toothless, 3D printed out of titanium, came into the world at Lab 22, our </span><a style="line-height:1.5em;" href="http://www.csiro.au/Organisation-Structure/Flagships/Future-Manufacturing-Flagship/Ti-Technologies/Arcam.aspx">additive manufacturing facility</a><span style="line-height:1.5em;"> in Melbourne. The scientists there have printed some extraordinary things in the past&#x2014;huge </span><a style="line-height:1.5em;" href="http://csironewsblog.com/2013/06/19/would-you-like-to-super-size-that-bug/">anatomically correct insects</a><span style="line-height:1.5em;">, biomedical implants and aerospace parts. So they thought a dragon was achievable.</span></p>