Bones

In case there was ever any doubt … atrocities are nothing new. Scientists have recently determined that piled human remains unearthed in what is now Potočani, Croatia, represent the earliest-known indiscriminate mass killing.

By taking their microscopes to the skeletal structures of the human body, scientists have unearthed an entirely new type of bone cell, one they believe may play an important role in the development of osteoporosis and other bone diseases.

Scientists at the University of Buffalo have found a very useful clue shedding light on the migration of canines to the Americas, in the DNA of an ancient bone fragment thought to be the oldest confirmed dog remains in the region.

It can be tricky enough getting titanium implants to bond with the surrounding bone, but when the patient has osteoporosis, things get even harder. An experimental coating may help, though, by first boosting and then blocking inflammation.

Presently, if a patient is missing a section of bone, it has to be replaced with bone harvested from elsewhere in their body. A new cell-containing gel, however, could one day be 3D printed right into the injury, where it would then harden.

A new X-ray scanner adds color and a third dimension, creating high resolution, cutaway 3D models that can diagnose bone fractures and monitor healing. A feasibility study of the machine has now been conducted, with a larger trial set to begin soon.

An almost-complete Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton has sold for over US$30 million. Nicknamed Stan, the rex was the star attraction in Christie’s Evening Sale of 20th Century Art on Oct. 6, and it's fetched the highest amount ever paid for a dinosaur fossil.

For some time now, we've heard about scaffolding-like materials that are implanted into bone fractures, prompting the body's own bone cells to grow into them and heal the break. Now, however, scientists have developed a special bandage that may also do the job.

One of the largest, most complete and most famous Tyrannosaurus rex skeletons is about to go under the hammer. The dinosaur, nicknamed “Stan,” has been on display in the Black Hills Institute for decades, but will now be auctioned off by Christie’s.

The results of an interesting experiment in which muscled-up mice were sent into space has shed some new light on how the low-gravity environment impacts physiology, with the rodents retaining muscle mass when engineered to lack a certain protein.

Like most machines, the human body tends to wear out faster at the points of articulation, where decades of stress are focused. Now, researchers at Stanford have found a way to induce cartilage tissue to regenerate in joints by tweaking the stem cells there.

Scientists at the National University of Science and Technology in Russia are developing a new bioactive polymer-ceramic composite derived from common eggshells that can be used to treat skull injuries and other surgical bone procedures.