Fracture Putty Can Heal a Broken Bone In Days 236
An anonymous reader writes "If we break a bone it can take weeks or even month to heal depending on the type and severity of the break. In some extreme cases the complexity of the fracture can make it impossible to heal properly. Researchers at the University of Georgia Regenerative Bioscience Center have come up with a new solution for healing broken bones that cuts recovery time to days. It relies on the use of stem cells that contain a bone generating protein. These cells are injected in gel form directly into the area of the broken bone, where they quickly get to work forming new bone. The end result is very rapid recovery, possibly sidestepping the muscle atrophy that can come with long bone healing times. The gel has been proven to work on animals as big as a sheep and has funding from the DoD. Lets hope it is proven to work on humans in the coming years."
Re:How "silly" is it, though? (Score:5, Insightful)
I think you probably stumped some of the younger slashdotters with that joke.
Re:NOW they develop this... (Score:5, Insightful)
. I do hope this comes to fruition...cool stuff. Who said war wasn't useful?
Take all the money we spend on wars and spend it on R&D. We'll get a lot more cool stuff a lot faster. War is not useful. It's good for absolutely nothing.
large animals (Score:5, Insightful)
this would be great for horses. its nearly impossible to allow multi-leg fractures to heal properly with a large animal .. they usually just get put down.
Re:NOW they develop this... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:NOW they develop this... (Score:5, Insightful)
Take all the money we spend on wars and spend it on R&D. We'll get a lot more cool stuff a lot faster. War is not useful. It's good for absolutely nothing.
If the money not spent on war were spent instead on R&D, this would be true -- cut the DoD budget in half and give the money to NIH and NSF, and we'd have a boom in science and technology like none the world has ever seen. But politics doesn't work that way. The military wastes a hell of a lot of money, no question about it. It also spend a lot of money on very worthwhile research, and like it or not, it's easier to get Congress to appropriate that money for wounded soldiers. Who, regardless of your opinion on the way in which they were injured, deserve to have their wounds cared for as well as possible by the same government that sent them out to get injured in the first place.
In the specific area of trauma care, the simple fact is that most of modern emergency and orthopedic medicine is an outgrowth of military medicine. Like it or not, next time you call 911, you'll have a much better chance of survival because of generations of work directed toward keeping wounded soldiers alive.
Re:How "silly" is it, though? (Score:5, Insightful)
Can this putty pick up the comics section from the local newspaper as it heals your bones? If not, I'm out.
I think you probably stumped some of the younger slashdotters with that joke.
yeah, wot's a "newspaper" ?!!!
Re:NOW they develop this... (Score:5, Insightful)
... Who said war wasn't useful?
Family members of the dead.
Re:NOW they develop this... (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't know, they had some pretty solid hits ("Low Rider", "Spill the Wine", "The Cisco Kid" and "Why Can't We Be Friends?") and seem to have a fairly decent following. Just because you don't like American Funk, doesn't mean someone else doesn't.
Re:How "silly" is it, though? (Score:5, Insightful)
says the anon who sadly didn't post creative ascii art.
Re:NOW they develop this... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:NOW they develop this... (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm not so sure they're learning much geography from war. The last time, they were looking for a Saudi-Arabian man who attacked them from Afghanistan and went hiding in Pakistan, yet they went looking for him in Iraq.