Print replacement bones

3D printers used to replace bonesNeat illustration, but look, New Scientist reports that replacement bones can now be formed using 3D printers.

Exact replicas of a man’s thumb bones have been made for the first time using a 3D printer.

The breakthrough paves the way for surgeons to replace damaged or diseased bones with identical copies built from the patients’ own cells.

“In theory, you could do any bone,” says Christian Weinand of the Insel Hospital in Berne, Switzerland, head of the team that copied his thumb bones. “Now I can put spares in my pocket if I want.” [found at NextBigFuture]