Beyond Hip
Orthopedic implants like hips and knee joints last about 10 years, after which patients must undergo surgery to have them replaced. With longer life spans, an aging population and the increasing demand for prosthetics, the hunt is on for more durable faux bones. Now, a new ceramic developed by material scientists in France promises to extend an implant’s life span to 30 years. A research team based at the National Institute for Applied Sciences in Lyon has developed a process that combines alumina and zirconia, two ceramics commonly used to replace the ball part of the femur that sits in the hip socket. The new alumina-zirconia composites boast significantly greater resistance to crack propagation resulting from defects and scratches and can handle twice as much load as either of the two ceramics alone. Before you ring up your doctor, however, note that human tests won’t start until late 2002.
Keep Reading
Most Popular
Large language models can do jaw-dropping things. But nobody knows exactly why.
And that's a problem. Figuring it out is one of the biggest scientific puzzles of our time and a crucial step towards controlling more powerful future models.
OpenAI teases an amazing new generative video model called Sora
The firm is sharing Sora with a small group of safety testers but the rest of us will have to wait to learn more.
Google’s Gemini is now in everything. Here’s how you can try it out.
Gmail, Docs, and more will now come with Gemini baked in. But Europeans will have to wait before they can download the app.
This baby with a head camera helped teach an AI how kids learn language
A neural network trained on the experiences of a single young child managed to learn one of the core components of language: how to match words to the objects they represent.
Stay connected
Get the latest updates from
MIT Technology Review
Discover special offers, top stories, upcoming events, and more.