Ah, Bionic Woman, we hardly knew you. Wounded by plummeting ratings after an initial strong showing and finished off by the writer’s strike, Bionic Woman proved that “reimagined” isn’t always better, with the show lasting just eight episodes compared to the original The Bionic Woman‘s 59 episodes. However, there’s better news in real-life bionics, with researchers at Georgia Tech announcing they have found a way to make metal implants more compatible with the human body.

The researchers discover that by coating titanium with a carefully engineered polymer, they were able to convince the human body to grow fresh bone around the metal implant, as if it was knitting together a broken arm or leg. This replaces the need to use a ceramic substance to glue the implant in place. While the technology is aimed more at those who need hip or knee replacement joints than cyborg warriors, this ability to work in concert with the body’s own healing systems is a significant advance for those considering the potential of implants of all stripes.

July 3rd, 2008 Tags: biomimetic materials, Bionic Woman, implants
by Stephen Cass in Cyborgs | 1 comments | RSS feed | Trackback >