Larger Invisible Implants and Useless Bones

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Comments

  • Well, for one we might need something more biocompatable than what we are using now for finger implants. Given that from memory we have magnets for wrist replacements that might work.

  • Pardon that error in my typing. I just now noticed it. Have no idea what that was supposed to say.
  • For future reference, I did a bit more research regarding the original topic here (bone replacements), the main secondary function bones serve (after structural functions) is of course housing bone marrow, where most blood in adults in produced.
    Found a few things, firstly, the bones in the arms produce little to none of the blood in a healthy adult, legs produce the least and often stop producing any at all aound the age of 40, most blood is produced by marrow in the torso bones, with a high concentration in the sternum. Also, several organs that develop prior to the bones in the fetal stage (such as the liver) are typically where most blood is produced in the fetal stage and often, early childhood. Many of those organs (primarily the liver) have been known to resume their blood producing function if (for whatever reason) the bone marrow ceases to be sufficient. This often results in an enlarging of said organ.
    I figure that information further enables the replacement of limb bones as a very real possibility. That is, one could do it just to do it, not necessarily because the bone had developed a tumor or something and needed to be removed for health reasons (in which case the usefulness of the one takes a back seat to overall health anyways).
    Unfortunately, the same research led me to discover that trillions of new blood cells (of assorted types) are produced daily. I'll be honest, part of me wonders why, I didn't realize so much blood was spent in the typical circulatory processes. I figured new blood was only produced in decent quantities to keep up with losses resulting from skin breaks and bleeding, and that (under normal circumstances) very little was produced on a daily basis. I don't know, maybe those trillions of blood cells are actually a very small percentage of the total circulatory system and my aforementioned thoughts are still accurate. Learn a little more every day I suppose.

    (In case it wasn't clear, I actually like this idea a lot, and if it weren't for the fact that bones are deep in the body (in the limbs anyways) and are physically connected to numerous muscles and things, I would likely pursue the idea more. Of course finding a surgeon to perform the surgery would likely be difficult. For the time being though, I'd like to assume that one day medical nanotechnology will become more common place and I'll be able to simply have little robots go into my legs and break down bones on a cellular level and replace them with metal bones.)
  • Just had an idea, probably the most useless bone (though not enitrely useless) is probably the tailbone or Coccyx. It can be removed surgically, and if it's replaced by let's say a titanium placebo, the muscles could be reattached and there shouldn't be complications. Also, my guess is that the bone isn't producing blood cells at all. The shape of the bone would also beneficial, because of its wideness compared to a finger bone, it probably could fit a Arduino Gemma without any problems...
    Thoughts?
  • @JohnDoe I'd be interested in reviewing your prosthetic designs. Just out of engineering curiosity.

    @IvoTheSquire bones adaptation to stress levels can be problematic indeed. That goes for both, too little stress as well as too high stress levels. it's not so much an issue with replacing entire bones tho.  I wonder if introducing local stress using microvibrations from piezo elements would help.

    @Chaphasilor said bones, muscles and nerves could serve as a great entry point for building a useful/meaningful/reasonably data-loaded neural interface. 
  • Let me see if I still have the cad files
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