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3D Dragon Breathes Life into 7-year-old Girl’s Vision in Australia

Categories: Oceania, Australia, Good News, Technology

3D Dragon [1]

3D Dragon – courtesy CSIRO Facebook page

A 3D titanium dragon and a seven-year-old girl are the ingredients for the best good news story of the 2014 new year. Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) were proud to report on their blog [2]:

Earlier this week we posted about a letter [3] we received from Sophie, a 7-year-old girl. All she wanted was a dragon.

“Our work has never ventured into dragons of the mythical, fire breathing variety. And for this Australia, we are sorry,” we replied.

Sophie's very polite letter [2]

Sophie's very polite letter – courtesy CSIRO News Blog

They continued:

…We couldn’t sit here and do nothing. After all, we promised Sophie we would look into it.

So this morning at 9:32 a.m. (AEDT), a dragon was born.

You can watch [4] it being made here:

Tech news site Gizmodo Australia’s reaction on twitter was typical and has been retweeted numerous times:

KMB clearly enjoyed some uplifting news:

So did Rachael McDiarmid:

Damon Meredith saw the implications in this public relations coup for a government organization:

Hugh Jørgensen was explicit about funding cutbacks:

However, there was a sour note from John Derry:

But Penny Timms liked the happy ending:

It is a girl so its name is ‘Toothless’ as requested by Sophie Lester.

Sophie's dragon [24]

Sophie's dragon – courtesy CSIRO Facebook page


As she waited for the delivery of her dragon, her mother expressed [25] her daughter’s delight:

Mrs Lester said Sophie was overjoyed with the CSIRO's response and has been telling everyone dragon breath can be a new fuel.

”All her friends are now saying they want to be a scientist and Sophie says she now wants to work in the CSIRO. She's saying Australian scientists can do anything,” she said.