Category Technology/Electronics

To make a good framework for filling in missing bone, mix at least 30% pulverized natural bone with some special human-made plastic and create the needed shape with a 3D printer. That’s the recipe for success reported by researchers at The Johns Hopkins University. Each year birth defects, trauma or surgery leave an estimated 200,000 people in need of replacement bones in the head or face. Historically, the best treatment required surgeons to remove part of a patient’s fibula (a leg bone that doesn’t bear much weight), cut it into the general shape needed and implant it in the right location. But the procedure not only creates leg trauma but also falls short because the relatively straight fibula can’t be shaped to fit the subtle curves of the face very well.

Three-Dimensional Printing of...

Robot outperformed expert surgeons and current robot-assisted surgical techniques in open bowel surgery in pigs. (stock image) Credit: © ralamst / Fotolia

Putting surgery one step closer into the realm of self-driving cars and intelligent machines, researchers show for the first time that a supervised autonomous robot can successfully perform soft tissue surgery. The robot outperformed expert surgeons and current robot-assisted surgical techniques in open bowel surgery in pigs. By taking human intervention out of the equation, autonomous robots could potentially reduce complications and improve the safety and efficacy of soft tissue surgeries, about 45 million of which are performed in the U.S. each year.

Robot-assisted surgery currently relies on the surgeon to manually control it, and o...

Iso-surface plot of Q-criterion (2500) showing the vortices generated at the transition between upstroke and downstroke at 2 m/s, viewed obliquely from above and behind. Iso-surface plot of Q-criterion (2500) showing the vortices generated at the transition between upstroke and downstroke at 2 m/s, viewed obliquely from above and behind.

Long-eared bats are assisted in flight by their ears and body, according to a study by researchers at Lund University in Sweden. The recent findings improve understanding of the bats’ flying technique and could be significant for the future development of drones etc. Contrary to what researchers previously assumed, Christoffer Johansson Westheim et al show long-eared bats are helped in flight by their large ears.

“We show how the air behind the body of a l...

Inkjet printed “lasing capsules” serve as the core of an organic laser. Figure (a) shows a schematic of the laser setup, while figure (b) shows actual lasing capsules, which would cost only a few cents to produce. OC stands for “Output Coupler” and FP stands for Febry-Perot etalon. Credit: Sanaur, et al/JAP

Ultra-low-cost, easy to fabricate ‘lasing capsules’ with an inkjet printer. Since lasers were invented more than 50 years ago, they have transformed a diverse swath of technology – from CD players to surgical instruments. Now researchers from France and Hungary have invented a way to print lasers that’s so cheap, easy and efficient they believe the core of the laser could be disposed of after each use.

“The low-cost and easiness of laser chip fabrication are the most significant aspects...