Doctors at Peking University have successfully implanted the first 3D printed vertebrae in a young patient. The patient, a 12 year old boy, had a malignant tumour in his spinal cord. After hours  of specialized spinal cord surgery, doctors replaced a section of cancerous vertebra in his neck with the 3D printed piece. 3D printing creates layer upon layer of material in specific patterns or shapes to make a 3D object from a digital model.  Materials in 3D printing are usually polymers and metals, and in this case, a titanium powder which is a traditional orthopedic implant material. As far as tradition goes, that’s where the similarities end. Because of the limitations of traditional orthopedic implant manufacturing  – normally in geometric-type shapes with less realistic shaping or conformity to the bones, implants typically don’t attach to the bone without orthopedic cement or screws. The worldwide orthopedic market had global revenues of more than $36b in 2008. According to a new report by Freedonia, the demand for implantable medical devices in the United States alone is projected to increase 7.7 percent annually to $52 billion in 2015. The study reported that orthopedic implants will be one of the fastest growing and nanotechnology and biotechnology will fuel growth and demand to the market. With the Silver Economy coming of age, orthopedics is a high growth market. Because 3D printing is flexible, based on and created from a digital model, 3D printing enables orthopedic implants to be printed in any shape. This opens the door to hundreds of possibilities that […]

Businesses are increasingly operating in the cloud to make collaborative work easier than ever. All of the online applications and software that companies use to accomplish their day-to-day tasks come with a slew of usernames, passwords and other log-in information to remember, and they may be affecting your company more than you realize. “The typical small business has 15 cloud apps, and bigger businesses have even more,” said Mike Gold, president of cloud IT solutions provider Intermedia, referencing a recent study his company conducted. “There’s a lot of logging in and logging out, and that takes a lot of time. If you lose one [password] you have to reset it, and it’s a big hassle for [IT]. Too many passwords hurt employee productivity.” But the biggest problem with multiple cloud applications isn’t the stress of remembering and managing passwords, or the time lost to logging in and out of each one. The larger implications of shared accounts and unchanged passwords pose a major threat to a business’s data security. A separate Intermedia and Osterman Research study found that 89 percent of employees retained access to sensitive corporate applications from their previous jobs, including Salesforce, PayPal, Sharepoint, Facebook and email. Even more disturbing is the fact that nearly half of those employees admitted to logging into those accounts after leaving the company. This problem becomes even more complicated when employees use unsanctioned cloud applications like Dropbox for work without the company’s knowledge. “Employees can sign up [for these apps] on their […]

I’m not a tech guy, but even before I knew what a startup was I wanted to make one. Finding tech co-founders has been the biggest challenge for me in building one. Over the course of three years, I’ve made countless mistakes and wasted a lot of time. But I did manage to build an awesome team of three tech-savvy co-founders, and I hope my advice helps you have similar success in much less time. Finding a tech person Good tech nerds can be found anywhere, but you won’t be able to tease them out if you are scared that they’ll steal your idea. People steal ideas much less than you might think. Everybody already has their own ideas, and there’s a good chance that your idea is still immature. If your idea is so simple that any developer could build it in a short time, wait until you find developers you trust, then share your idea only if they understand that you are indispensable for its success. If your idea is complex and clearly relies on your expertise, people will probably understand that. If the idea is cool, they’ll want you to help make it happen. Shout it out And making the idea public will reduce the chances of people stealing it. But you have to make the idea public in the right way. Make a video in which you clearly explain it. Explain what kind of collaborators you’re looking for, and clearly describe what you’re willing to give in return for their time and expertise. Read more: How to find a techie co-founder for […]

Cloud-based file-sharing services benefit all types of businesses by providing easy, convenient access to information anytime, anywhere. But if any of your employees use personal accounts and free services designed for consumer use, they could be putting your business at high risk for a security breach. “With work and personal lives becoming increasingly blurred, especially for small business owners and managers, the delineation of work data and personal information has [blurred], too,” said Dan Sloshberg, product marketing director at cloud services provider Mimecast. This makes secure file-sharing critical for small businesses. With the consumerization of IT and the bring-your-own-device (BYOD)movement, employees now use traditionally consumer-oriented technology for business purposes, Sloshberg said. “It’s easy to forget that the information we handle in our work lives often requires greater care,” he said. “Its value and privacy can be vital to business success, and it should be adequately protected at all times, [and] data can be at its most vulnerable when being shared.” Although email is the most common way businesses communicate, collaborate and share information, limitations within commonly used email systems, such as file-size and storage constraints, often create restrictions, Sloshberg explained. “[These] restrictions force users to find workaround solutions,” he added. “They most commonly turn to consumer-grade file-sharing services to overcome this productivity barrier of email.” These services, however, are meant for personal accounts and suffer from severe inadequacies in protecting business data. “The consequences of consumer-grade file-sharing services in the workplace can be far reaching,” Sloshberg said. Problems include “loss […]

Inefficiencies in electronics are costing the world dearly. And that cost is rising. The next time you power on your television or game consoles, take a second to think about the waste associated with it. A report by the International Energy Agency, an organizations that advises developed nations, released on Wednesday did just that and the sum is astounding. Over $80 billion in power was spent unnecessarily in 2013 because of inefficiencies with the world’s 14 billion online electronic devices, including printers, gaming consoles and televisions. By 2020, that number is expected to climb to $120 billion as more devices like washing machines, light bulbs and refrigerators are connect online, according to the report. “Electricity demand of our increasingly digital economies is growing at an alarming rate,” the report said.  The IEA, which is based in Paris, found that devices consumed about 616 terawatt-hours of power in 2013. The catch? Most of that power was used while the devices were in standby mode. “The problem is not that these devices are often in standby mode, but rather that they typically use much more power than they should to maintain a connection and communicate with the network,” said Maria Van der Hoeven, the IEA’s executive director, in a statement. The IEA also said that the idea of the standby option on a devise is a “misnomer.” While it “suggests that the device has gone to sleep and is almost off,” the agency found that’s not the case. “In reality, most network-enabled devices draw as […]

If you’re gearing up for Google’s big annual developer event this year, you might be wondering what the company will be doing with its full two-day event, which kicks off Wednesday. Google’s focus this year is expanding to include more information and value for the gamut of app and software makers. That means speaking not just to developers but also to designers and marketers. But for the average user, there’s still plenty to look for here in terms of news and excitement, too. Android Wear A key focus this year, according to people familiar with the matter, will be Android Wear.Google announced the project earlier this year, and released it to developers in beta form. It’s an extension of its mobile OS that is designed specifically for use on smartwatches and other wearable form factor devices, and we’ll almost certainly hear a lot more about it at I/O this year. Two manufacturers are set to debut the first shipping smartwatches running Android wear this year, including Motorola and LG. Both had promised a summer launch window for these devices, which are the Moto 360 and LG G Watch, and we’ve just entered into summer technically, so we’re almost guaranteed to hear more about these at I/O, if we don’t get a full-fledged launch of both. We’ll almost certainly get a good long look at Android Wear in a consumer-ready form, with more details and specifics on how it’ll work in terms of both basic built-in functionality and third-party support, and there will probably […]