"with the aid of laser beams, we can translate a physical object, let's take a complicated one, let's take a dandelion flower gone to seed a dandelion clock. You take a dandelion clock about so big, it can be turned into a formula passed through channels, enlarged to any size, say this big, and with laser beams, cut in solid plastic in a matter of moments. You can get this reproduction of a three-dimensional object. But the transition between the two was handled simply in terms of pulses."