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Dissolvable Glass For Bone Repair

Posted by kdawson on from the heart-of-glass dept.

gpronger writes "Sticks and Stones May Break My Bones, but Glass Will Certainly Mend Them! The old schoolyard ditty may be changed to reflect developments using metallic glass that will dissolve in situ instead of the traditional stainless steel or titanium hardware, which require removal by surgery once the bone has healed. Physics World reports that researcher Jörg Löffler at ETH Zurich has created an alloy of 60% magnesium, 35% zinc, and 5% calcium, molded in the form of metallic glass. Through rapid cooling, the alloy forms a molecularly amorphous glass that slowly dissolves over time, supporting the injury long enough for healing, then slowly dissolving away."

9 of 168 comments (clear)

  1. Somehow... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I doubt the little schoolyard ditty will be changed.

    1. Re:Somehow... by BJ_Covert_Action · · Score: 4, Funny

      I remember the first time I sing-songed this to a jerk when I was, like, 5. She immediately went outside, picked up a very large stick, and beat me senseless with it. And my older sister asks me why I never come visit her anymore....

      --
      Motorcycles, Robots, Space Gossip and More!
    2. Re:Somehow... by skine · · Score: 3, Funny

      They've tried before to change it to "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will cause me years of clinical depression and crippling social anxiety," and failed.

      So I do doubt ditty diddling doing diddly dreadfully damaging.

  2. He had a glass jaw! by BigSes · · Score: 5, Funny

    No, really.

  3. Uses for erectile disfunction? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Can this be used until the viagra kicks in, and then it dissolves away?

  4. Re:end to casts? by HaZardman27 · · Score: 5, Funny

    This sounds like a solid business plan: repair broken bones and weaken others so that they will break soon too, thus ensuring a returning customer!

    --
    Apparently wizard is not a legitimate career path, so I chose programmer instead.
  5. First do no harm by tepples · · Score: 4, Funny

    This sounds like a solid business plan: repair broken bones and weaken others so that they will break soon too, thus ensuring a returning customer!

    The FDA and other national regulators of medicine are supposed to protect the people from such business models.

  6. Shamylan vs. Lee by BJ_Covert_Action · · Score: 2, Funny

    Imagine the Hollywood scripts that could come from this new material. Rather than having adamantium grafted to his skeleton, Wolverine could have had glass grafted instead. Then, rather than being a badass unstoppable killing machine, he could gimp around on a cane fantasizing himself to be a super villain before Bruce Willis discovers himself to be an unlikely super hero with absolutely no backstory who cannot be broken! We can call the movie "A Tale of Two Unbreakables" and make billiions!. Profit!

    --
    Motorcycles, Robots, Space Gossip and More!
  7. Dissovable by T3xT · · Score: 3, Funny

    ...I don't think it means what you think it means.