3-D Printers to Replace Broken Bones
One of the most entertaining devices that I’ve seen at technology conferences is the 3-D printer. Using computer files and special powders, these mechanisms create complete three-dimensional models of just about anything, from manufacturing prototypes to the contents of a dinosaur egg. (Imagine - instead of buying manipulatives to use in class, you’ll just download a file and print them up!)
Now medical researchers have come up with a pretty serious application. According to New Scientist Magazine, doctors have developed a device that can print replacement sections of bone to repair severely broken limbs. Modeled on scans of the patients own bones, the parts are created from a material that acts as a temporary support and then is grown over by real bone and disappears. It will set up a much faster recovery than current methods.