A lot has been done in the word of 3-D printing. One of the bigger breakthroughs lately was the ability to create objects such as biological tissue with blood vessels. I have no idea how real this breakthrough truly is- the possibilities vs. the realties seem to be clouded still. That being said, I think this article brings up a valid point at the end. Although we are far away from big picture stuff, we've taken the first step. And that step has proven itself an important one.
For more on 3-D printing, check out this article from MIT Technology Review.
