Medtronic 's ( MDT - news - people ) spine surgery business is dominated by a procedure called spinal fusion, in which two of the segments of the backbone, called vertebrae, are fused together using metal rods and cages, bone taken from elsewhere in the body, and protein drugs that stimulate bone growth.

FORBES: Neurosurgery

Humans have been making needles for more than 20, 000 years, first out of bone and more recently out of metal.

FORBES: No. 13 The Needle

Michie's Whale Skull Bone will be made using a metal framework inside a carved dense polystyrene material which is then coated in reinforced concrete.

BBC: Sculptures selected for Dunnet Head and beach

Doctors in Birmingham have chosen to use a metal plate to repair her skull instead of that bone, which they say may have shrunk.

BBC: Malala Yousafzai

Other finds include the bone comb once used by an image conscious lough dweller and a metal blade which is still sharp after hundreds of years.

BBC: nit comb