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.
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:
CSIRO 3D-Printed A Dragon Made Of Titanium For A 7-Year Old Girl, Because It Could – http://t.co/ukdVvvQLjx [5]
— Gizmodo Australia (@giz_au) January 11, 2014 [6]
KMB clearly enjoyed some uplifting news:
Take an 'Ahhh' break from an otherwise cr@p 'news' day MT"@CSIROnews [7]: Sophie asked. We made a dragon. http://t.co/pJ916dOkc0 [8] ^VH"
— KMB (@rich_tapestry) January 10, 2014 [9]
So did Rachael McDiarmid:
Man I just LOVE the CSIRO. Legends! And great publicity. Accelerating our dragon R&D program http://t.co/OWNJShfNLj [10] via @wordpressdotcom [11]
— Rachael McDiarmid (@RJMcDiarmid) January 8, 2014 [12]
Damon Meredith saw the implications in this public relations coup for a government organization:
I, as a taxpayer, would support more dragon research. @CSIROnews [7] http://t.co/7xzkhqGalq [13]
— Damon Meredith (@DamonAM) January 9, 2014 [14]
Hugh Jørgensen was explicit about funding cutbacks:
And we're defunding these guys why? MT @CSIROnews [7] Sophie asked, and we said we'd look into it. We made a dragon http://t.co/JiaL9fKYdR [15]
— Hugh Jørgensen (@hughjorgensen) January 10, 2014 [16]
However, there was a sour note from John Derry:
I don’t give a crap about Sophie or her dragon. #csiro [17]
— John Derry (@johnlderry) January 10, 2014 [18]
But Penny Timms liked the happy ending:
Who says news is always about disaster and destruction? A nice ending. #CSIRO [19] makes #Brisbane [20] girl a titanium #dragon [21] http://t.co/0MFAfhaW0l [22]
— Penny Timms (@pennytimms) January 11, 2014 [23]
It is a girl so its name is ‘Toothless’ as requested by Sophie Lester.
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.