Bones

For the first time, scientists have found how our internal body clocks that govern the brain and skeletal system sync up, and upsetting this balance might contribute to injury and accelerate age-related bone and joint decline and disease.

When treating broken bones, doctors want new bone tissue to grow back ASAP, and they also want to keep the wound site from becoming infected. Scientists have developed an implantable composite material that reportedly delivers on both counts.

More than 300,000 Americans aged 65 and older are hospitalized for hip fractures each year. But researchers have found that even tiny lifestyle changes can boost bone strength to a level that greatly reduces the incidence of these serious fractures.

RNA therapies are emerging as a promising treatment for cancer. Now, scientists at Tel Aviv University have demonstrated a way to use RNA drugs to treat multiple myeloma, a hard-to-reach cancer that forms deep in bone tissue.

Anthropologists have assembled the most complete Stone Age family tree, spanning 7 generations. Genetic studies of the remains of dozens of people in a burial site in France reveal some surprising insights into family and social dynamics of the time.

Researchers have used machine learning to assess bone density scans for calcification in the aorta, the body’s main artery. They say their method could be used to predict future cardiovascular and other disease, even before symptoms appear.

Cannibalism among our ancestors is not a surprise, but scientists have been taken aback to find clues of this behavior that hail from 1.45 million years ago. Precision cuts made with a stone tool suggests there were some skilful butchers around too.

With evolution there’s always a trade-off – long necks may help you find food but they’re also a massive weak spot. Now, paleontologists have found direct fossil evidence of prehistoric, long-necked marine reptiles being decapitated by predators.

We may soon be giving our unwanted eggshells to science, thanks to new research that has used the humble chicken eggshell to create a new bioactive material for making safe, effective bone grafts.

Calcium carbonate is an impressive material, in that it combines strength, light weight and porosity. Scientists have devised a new bacteria-based method of 3D-printing the substance, for uses such as bone repair and coral reef restoration.

A common diabetes drug has been linked to a reduction in the need for joint replacement surgery. The observational study suggests the drug could be helpful for patients with osteoarthritis, although further clinical work is needed to validate the association.

While bone injuries such as fractures typically heal on their own, large sections of missing bone often never grow back, requiring bone transplants from other parts of the body. A new hydrogel, however, could help change that.