From the controversial to the awe-inspiring, 3D printing is used to create everything from guns, to functioning body parts, and even food. The possibilities seem endless for an industry that shapes ideas into actual products.

Among the companies trying to capitalize on the growth of 3D printing, also called additive manufacturing, is Pennsylvania-based ExOne (XONE). The company makes and sells the machines that do the printing and also takes orders to create specific products.

Artists have tapped them to print intricate sculpture designs, kitchenware companies have ordered frying pan handles, and the company has even printed prosthetic arms for wounded veterans.

"Each day you see another article about something that’s being produced additively and how the additive world is going to make this tremendous difference," says Kent Rockwell, chairman & CEO of ExOne, in the attached video. "I believe that the additive world will make a tremendous difference."

ExOne prints in plastic, glass and even sand, but the most common material is metal.

Here's how it works: Customers email their design to the company and it is loaded into the 3D printer's computer which splices it into thin digital layers. The printer takes that design and lays down a small amount of steel dust in the shape of the first layer. It then adds a coating of special glue, then more steel dust is layered on until the entire design is molded.

From Back to the Future to The Jetsons, you don’t have to be Jay Leno to realize auto technology is simply fascinating. Development of hybrid, electric, and even driverless cars has been underway for years, not just in Detroit, but in the tech capital of the world --Silicon Valley, California. This is where Breakout’s Jeff Macke sat down with Carlos Ghosn, the CEO of Renault and Nissan.

The Renault-Nissan alliance is the fourth largest automaker in the world, but Nissan alone sold nearly 5 million vehicles in 2012, which grew its business 5.8% year-over-year. Earlier this year, the company joined other automakers like Ford (F), Volkswagen and BMW in the Valley, opening a research lab with 60 new engineers set to be hired in the next three years. They’ve named it NRC-SV (Nissan Research Center Silicon Valley).

“It is totally normal that all car manufacturers have some kind of presence in Silicon Valley,” says Ghosn. “I think it’s a basic condition. What you do here is going to give you an edge.”

At NRC-SV, Ghosn says the focus is on auto technology for self-driving vehicles, Internet connected cars, and perfecting their 100% electric car, the Nissan Leaf.

As of February, there were just over 50,000 Leafs sold worldwide. The numbers are growing slowly, and it seems the challenges are being met at the same pace.

“One of the main headwinds to the development of the electric car is where is the charging infrastructure?” says Ghosn. “People who have tried the electric car, heard about the electric car, are hesitating to jump into this technology mainly because of the infrastructure which is called the range anxiety.”

Updated 5/8/2013

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A), already the largest investor in DaVita, has agreed to nearly double their stake in the company. Once finalized Berkshire would hold a 25% stake in the the leading kidney dialysis provider in the country. DaVita shares rose over 3% in after hours trading on Tuesday's news that they had entered the "standstill" agreement with Berkshire. According to a recent regulatory filing, Buffett's company owned roughly 15 million shares of DaVita as recently as March. That put their stake in the company at 14.2% before this new agreement.

Nearly half a million Americans depend on kidney dialysis to keep them alive and one in three of those patients gets their treatment from a company called DaVita (DVA). High demand has this Denver-based health care company growing faster than ever.

“When your kidney fails, you die unless you’re one of the fortunate few who get transplanted,” explains DaVita’s Chairman and CEO Kent Thiry. “When we go to the bathroom, we urinate out the toxins in everything that we eat and drink and breathe. When your kidney doesn’t work, you can’t get rid of those toxins.”

DaVita has nearly 2,000 dialysis centers throughout the country. Patients typically visit a center three times a week for three to four hours. As Thiry explains, patients are then hooked up to a machine that removes their blood, cleans it, and puts it back into their body.

That process is where DaVita makes most of its money, but last year’s $4.4 billion acquisition of “HealthCare Partners” has helped the company expand past kidney care too.

But getting a return on that investment will be no small feat given well established competitors like Universal Health Services (UHS), Athena Health (ATHN) and HCA Healthcare (HCA). The competition hasn't dampened Thiry's aspiration to completely overhaul the American health care system.

There’s nothing like fresh produce straight from the farm. Green markets are popping up all over the country to meet growing demand for high quality food. But if you don’t have the time or the patience, you certainly have options. FreshDirect is one of the largest online grocers that’s been clicking with consumers seeking quality.

Grocery delivery services aren’t new; they’ve existed as long as the stores themselves. While overall grocery store sales in the U.S. fell 2.1% last year, online grocer sales jumped over 8%, according to IBISWorld. Further, they estimate online sales to grow 9.5% annually into a $9.4 billion industry by 2017.

The largest is Peapod, a service that delivers goods specifically from grocery store chains Stop & Shop and Giant Foods. The company started in Illinois in 1989 and now covers 24 markets in 13 states. FreshDirect is the new kid on the block, started in New York in 2002.

Breakout sat down with the co-founders, Jason Ackerman and David McInerney, to digest exactly what sets FreshDirect apart.

“Forget the Internet for a moment, look at a Stop & Shop and Whole Foods (WFM),” says Ackerman, who also serves as CEO. “You’d be able to articulate that they’re very different stores. It’s the same thing. We are about really the best fresh food on the marketplace and that’s what makes us different.”

The company travels around the globe looking for the freshest meat, seafood, and produce. Unlike competitor Peapod, they’re not tied to any specific grocer. They believe this enables the service to be faster and fresher.

“Take strawberries. Those strawberries are bred and grown to have a three week shelf life,” explains McInerney, “to accommodate retailers that need to move them around and around and around until ultimately they end up at a consumers house. Our model takes out a lot of the distribution because we’re buying it directly from the farm. We can take entire truckloads from the farm into us, often pre-selling it before it even arrives in our facility because we take orders seven days out.”

FreshDirect told us exclusively about plans to take that freshness to a whole new level. The company will relocate from its Long Island City headquarters in Queens, to the Bronx, New York, where they’ll have a brand new facility and products that are ripe for the picking.

In a world where everyone is connecting online, doctors and hospitals have been struggling to streamline decades of disconnected data. Electronic health records (EHR) are the way of the future. A 2011 McKinsey & Company study suggested that the health care industry could save $300 billion a year with the better data management that EHR provides. San Francisco-based Practice Fusion is trying to fix the data problem and is a leader in the industry, putting you health records online and making them accessible to doctors.

CEO Ryan Howard launched the company in 2005 after running into his own problems transferring his health records. "In 1999 I drove from New Hampshire to San Francisco, and I realized during the transition that I had a struggle getting my health records," he explains. "As I dug into this further I realized that the average patient sees 19 different doctors in their lifetime and that there's 200,000 deaths a year because this information is not available."

Practice Fusion handles every step of your doctors visit beginning with scheduling your appointment. When you arrive and a nurse takes your vitals, like weight, blood pressure, allergies, and your ailment, that is added to the Practice Fusion system, creating a personalized medical record that can be shared with any doctor that may need it. It's even connected to most pharmacies so when you leave the office your medication will be ready to pick up.

"It's the most efficient place for [pharmaceutical companies ] to come and have a dialog with doctors. The laboratories, it's the most efficient place for them to come and connect with doctors," says Howard.

And perhaps the best part, it's free for doctors and patients. As for profit, it's all about the data.

When you turn on the faucet of your kitchen sink or bathroom shower, it's easy to forget that behind the water is a really big business. From finding a clean source, to purifying it, and getting it into your home, there are plenty of ways to profit from good old H2O. And the demand for safe, clean water in every corner of the world has never been higher.

We were reminded of its importance last week with the United Nation's 20th annual World Water Day. Connecticut Water Services (CTWS) marked the occasion by ringing the closing bell at the Nasdaq marketsite. Their CEO, Eric Thornburg notes that World Water Day "commemorates the impact that water has on the lives of people all over the world. And of course in the U.S. we’re very proud of that impact, because people can take a drink of water and not have a second thought about its safety or freshness. But in other parts of the world you can’t do that. There are over a billion people around the globe that do not have access to safe drinking water."

But from that global crisis flows opportunity. Investors are catching on to the value of water and many believe it could be the next great commodity to invest in.

The S&P Global Water Index (CGW) outperformed the benchmark S&P 500 index last year rising 21% against the S&P's 16% gain. PowerShares Water Resources fund (PHO), the largest ETF in the sector, saw a 23% jump in 2012 as well, and Thornburg's Connecticut Water Services, despite facing some near-term price pressure, is up 20% in the last five years.

"I think the real investment opportunity is in the infrastructure and the systems that treat and protect this resource," Thornburg says. "Purifying the water and pumping it and storing it and having it available when it's needed, that's really our business."

Ask anyone who lives in or tries to get around in a major city and they'll tell you any number of stories about a hellish commute, difficulty getting a cab in the rain, or navigating a tricky subway system. This is exactly why on-demand car service, "Uber" is getting the green light to expand in cities all around the world. Their goal is simple: turn your travel headache into a luxury experience while they make a profit.

"At the beginning, me and my co-founder just wanted to push a button and get a ride and we wanted it to be a classy ride," says CEO Travis Kalanick. "Go to a restaurant, get out, push a button, within five minutes an S-class rolls up and everybody’s like, 'how the hell did that happen?'"

Using an app on your mobile device you request a ride and a couple taps of the finger later a black town car is dispatched to your location. It's a simple idea that has caught on in a big way. The company began in San Francisco and in about two and a half years has grown to 30 cities around the world. From New York and Chicago to Paris and London. Just last month the company entered the Asian market, launching in Singapore.

Service fares begin with a base fee. From there, similar to standard cab fares, if you travel above 11 miles per hour fees are based on distance. If traffic slows you down fees are based on the time you spend in the car. Prices also fluctuate based on demand in the city you're in.

The average rider's of pocket cost is about 40-50% more than a standard cab, but so far customers aren't having any problem paying for the convenience.

A new wave of hospitality is sweeping the multi-billion dollar travel industry. Thanks to the internet people aren’t just ditching their travel agents, they’re ditching traditional resorts and hotels too.

Airbnb is one of the start-ups leading the revolution. Their website connects travelers with locals. So instead of staying in that high-priced hotel, you can stay in an actual house or apartment.

CEO Brian Chesky says they’re not re-inventing the vacation, just bringing back an old trend. “People keep thinking this is some bold new idea,” he says, “but actually up until 100 years ago, or say World War II, when people traveled staying in a home was actually very normal.”

Chesky and his friends/co-founders, Joe Gebbia and Nathan Blecharczyk, stumbled on the idea six years ago when they couldn’t pay rent.

“An international design conference was coming to San Francisco,” Chesky recalls, “all the hotels were sold out and [I said], what if we created a bed and breakfast for the conference. Unfortunately I didn't have any beds but Joe had three air beds. We inflated them and we called it the 'Air Bed and Breakfast.' We ended up hosting three people from around the world, we made enough money to make our rent, but more importantly it was like we got to travel without leaving our home.”

Airbnb's Rapid Growth

A year later a company was born. Airbnb listings have grown from 10,000 at the end of 2009 to 300,000 across 192 countries today. Those listings include everything from posh New York City apartments to tree houses in Costa Rica to Igloos in France.

Customers pay right through Airbnb’s website and the company takes a cut before paying the owner.

But the journey hasn’t been easy. The company had a tough time finding early financial backers and faced legal and safety issues from the start.