Where's the form i fill out to be a test dummy? Seriously, if I die, small price to pay for being the first guy with a metal dong.

Good luck explaining that to the securities at the airport when walking though the metal detector.

Brilliant!!!
Hopefully this will end the need of using a couple of dozen screws and a permanent bar to fix bad bone breaks. Most people never recover to 100% after such an accident.

Oh yea, and then the whole getting rid of chemo thing. Somebody's going to win a Nobel for this.

Best Grills ever.

@schrosa: Is it Bear Grylls?

Your dong doesn't have a bone with which to fuse the metal, id10t.

It doesn't yet!! THAT laser is just around the corner!!!

"The key characteristic of the femtosecond laser is the fact that it uniquely can hit its target without burning anything in the surrounding areas."

Blah. Try: "The unique characteristic of the femtosecond laser is that is can hit its target without burning the surrounding area."

Rule 17: Omit Needles Words.

This may end up being a double post, I can't tell if my work PC blocked the first one, so I apologize in advance.

"The key characteristic of the femtosecond laser is the fact that it uniquely can hit its target without burning anything in the surrounding areas."

Rule 17: Omit Needless Words

"The unique characteristic of the femtosecond laser is that it can hit its target without burning the surrounding areas."

Crap, double post, sorry.

Now triple post, nice going. But I would imagine its the professor's English that is to blame.

Laser assisted metal + bone fixing sounds awesome.

wouldn't work...your bones help produce your blood

Last time I heard the word "femtosecond" it was right after some sweet sweet lovin'. She must have been referring to...dammit...I would have sworn it was at least...like three or something.

Hrm...first step toward Halo-esque Spartans...

@Seiven It would work if you leave the small opening in your bones where blood and nerves flow in and out untouched. As long as those openings are left alone the rest of the bone can be covered in metal, because bones are feed nutrients from the inside out.

Well - if they're grafting crap onto bone - then they'll have to be able to see where to put it in real time_ Hence the need for a Tri-Corder and Scanners_

@Seiven: That's not necessarily a problem - seeing as how folks get pin and rod transplants all the time_ They'd just now be able to do this without the need for surgery and also with more precision_

This could also aid in Spinal repairs as these are very high risk surgeries_

They probably would not use this directly on kids or young folks still physically developing_ And yes there would be normal risks like any other surgery - anemics and diabetics might have complications and so on_

@makanai: Do yourself a favor and toss "The Elements of Style" in the garbage.

In the particular case of the sentence you're criticizing: I'm not going to say it couldn't be improved upon; it does read a bit clunky. But "needless words" are not its problem. The word you deleted, "key," communicates something that is lost in your version - that the characteristic described is the most important or most relevant of the various characteristics of the subject. You moved "unique" to its spot, which does make the sentence read more smoothly, but "unique" does not encompass what "key" said in the original.

@Daronne -- Is something wrong with your existing equipment? You're probably not using it right. Like any other activity, don't blame the equipment.

@Zeasar: Um last I checked airport scanners are checking for ferrous materials; they usually use Titanium (which is non-ferrous) for implants due to the fact that it doesn't oxidate or react with your blood (you know having iron and other minerals and all...)

Case in point, I have a titanium wedding ring. It doesn't set of metal detectors. They don't like to advertise it so that people don't start packing ceramic and titanium knives on board planes. But along those same lines you could go the Snow Crash way and carry obsidian chipped blades... I suspect those don't set off metal detectors either.

Oh did I forget to mention? I am a smart-a$$...

Maybe I'm missing something, but how would they sinter titanium to your bones without first peeling back all your skin and muscles like a banana peel? I don't see Wolverine in our future until this can be done through "key hole" surgery or something.

@Brock: I don't think you're the one that's missing things. I read the article and it didn't say anything about fussing metal to bone without the need of surgery. How else are you going to get the metal next to the bone without surgery.

Iron man

That also means you could imprint circuitry onto the surface of your bones. Neato.

I just want a few metal mount points on my skull so I can attach my sunglasses to my face magnetically (ditch the damn ear loops). And, I suppose if I wanted to look like a prick, it would work well for a bluetooth headset.

Wait, or better: Sometime later this might make it possible to cover the Synapses of your brain with metal. That way they will work even after the cells have died.

...

Wait, that's a bad idea! That would make Zombies! D:

@starbuck1011: Respectfully disagree.

If you accept the sentence as written, the "key" feature of the laser is that it is the only laser that does not burn surrounding tissue: "the key feature is that it uniquely can . . .." However, in this context, clearly the "key" is not its uniqueness, but rather what it does. The sentence, as drafted, does not appear to state what it means.

If what it means is that the key feature is that it doesn't burn surrounding tissue as opposed to the other feature of turning you into Wolverine, than clearly the "uniqueness" of the laser is irrelevant to the stated comparison, is not a key feature, and does not belong in the sentence.

If the idea of the sentence is to express two disparate concepts of 1) it is unique, and 2) it has a key feature of non-burning compared to the non-key but totally cool Wolverining feature, then the sentence should either be broken into two sentences or redrafted.

In either event, kudos to Wilson for bringing it to us.

I wanna be Wolverine, would they give you those claws too?

@Darrone: Penises dont have bones so there is nothing to put the metal on, but please laser your penis so maybe you wont reproduce

@CliftonSantiago: I wanna be X2. Will they put the claws on my feet? ^_^

Hopefully this will be available in time for Patrick Swayze. That pancreatic cancer is a tough one : (

@uberfu: True I didn't say this wasn't extremely useful...I was talking about replacing all your bones with adamantium ala Logan.

This is great news for the medical industry, but I think it would be a while before we see it in action.

sadly, the cancer theory is just them throwing out buzzwords, probably hoping for more money. the hard part about cancer is not usually removing the cells, per se, but finding all the cells to remove. there's no way this could replace chemo in that regard. chemotherapy works because it poisons fast growing cells more than slow growing ones (which is why you hair falls out). the hope is that by poisoning your whole body that way, you kill off any cancer cells and leave enough of you left alive to repair yourself.

but, as someone mentioned earlier, maybe they'll make a tricorder to locate all the cancers cells as well....

The hour is upon us! First, the electric skeleton! Second, the grand-mal seizures as the firing of neurons travel to places they really shouldn't!

Truly, the future is now.

I really hope they use non-conductive alloys.

Two Types of Bone:
1) Cancellous: Spongy, lots of marrow, makes them reds, yellows, and whites. That is on the inside of the pelvis, long bones (femur), sternum, etc.
2) Compact: That goes on the outside of the bones, makes them hard like dong on horny burrow. This would be the spot where the 'sintering' would be useful.

Presently, we use mostly screws, big and small, to affix plates (titanium or stainless) to the bone. These are just temporary, as eventually, if the bone does not fuse, the plate or screw will fail. Even titanium, which is hard as dong described above, will fail eventually, with enough repeated stress.

I imagine 'sintering' would allow the metal to take up much more surface area to make the connection. If you want to leave the sides of the femur bone, and line the anterior and posterior aspects with Titanium, you might just be an X-Man!