CSIRO Creates Dragon For 7-Year-Old Sophie [VIDEO]
Australia’s science agency has lived up to its promise. The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation apologised to the nation for failing to create a dragon after a seven-year-old girl asked for it. But now, CSIRO has indeed created a dragon, albeit a toy variety.
On Monday, CSIRO posted a letter from Sophie, a little girl who asked the agency’s “Lovely Scientist” if it could create a dragon for her.
“Would it be possible if you can make a dragon for me. I would like it if you could but if you can’t that’s fine,” Sophie wrote. “I would call it Toothless if it was a girl and if it is a boy I would name it Stuart.”
The government agency admitted that in their 87 years of doing science, it hasn’t been able to create a dragon or a dragon egg.
“And for this Australia, we are sorry,” CSIRO apologised.
CSIRO’s apology became global news, with U.S. film studio DreamWorks even offering to speak to Sophie since it knew how to train dragons (it made the animated film “How to Train Your Dragon” in 2010, in which Sophie was assumed to have gotten the name Toothless from).
St George Bank also tweeted its support, saying it would arrange a surprise for the precocious girl.
@CSIROnews Hello there, we thought this was adorable. We'd love to arrange a little surprise for Sophie. Pls follow us so we can DM? :) ~Jay
— St.George Bank (@StGeorgeBank) January 9, 2014
Because CSIRO promised Sophie that it would accelerate its dragon research and development program, it had to do something for her in the meantime.
And so it created a dragon named Toothless.
Not a live, breathing one, though, but a blue, winged creature made out of titanium that was 3-D printed at Lab 22 in Melbourne.
“Being that electron beams were used to 3-D print her, we are certainly glad she didn’t come out breathing them – instead of fire,” Additive Manufacturing Operations Manager Chad Henry said. “Titanium is super strong and lightweight, so Toothless will be a very capable flyer.”
The science agency wrote, “We’d love to have you in our team, Sophie. For now, stay curious.”