A LIGHTWEIGHT foam designed for protecting radio antennas on F-18 fighter
jets is also being developed to do something entirely different: mend broken
bones. Strong and sturdy enough to replace bone, the foam might be able to
actively help healing by attracting bone-forming cells, its developers say.
Orthopaedic surgeons need bone-like materials to replace bone destroyed by
disease or injury. Grafts from other parts of the body are not necessarily
suitable, because they don’t always match the needs of the bone being replaced,
and titanium implants lack the elasticity of bone and can be dislodged. The
ideal implant is a…
