The long-chain polymers that form snakelike backbones are generally
chemically inert, nonreactive and non-biodegradable. The very thing that
makes plastics hard to recycle (conventional petroleum-based plastics
never really go away, even when they break down into microscopic
disintegrating particles) is what makes them ideal implant material,
namely, the ability to remain stable and incognito to biological systems
that peruse the biological landscape for intruders. Our immune systems
simply have not evolved to recognize polymers as foreign, and as long as a
polymer implant is sterile and has structural integrity, it will be tolerated,
accommodated, and even welcomed by the body.
Polymers can be made hard as a rock or into a pliable plastic. Chemical
engineers can configure almost any shape and size implant, and special-
order particular performance under varying stress, heat, and friction
conditions. Alchemists spent centuries trying to turn chunks of earth into
gold and precious metals; while we know this to be foolhardy due to the
conservation of matter principle, scientists today are able to produce
wondrous materials out of petrochemical sludge, nothing short of an
alchemical sleight of hand.
Metals are commonly used in the body for orthopedic, cardiovascular,
and electronic applications. The main ingredients in metal implants are
cobalt, chromium, molybdenum, titanium, nickel, carbon, platinum, gold,
and others. Mining companies search the planet for unique mineral
deposits, with particularly rich concentrations in the continental shields,
areas where the world’s ancient crust still exists at the surface, like interior
Africa, Western Australia, and Canada. These mines are worked for ore,
yielding trace amounts of desired minerals for processing, purification,
alloy-manufacturing, and eventual implant production.
Minerals are “solid, naturally occurring, inorganic substances with a
crystalline structure, which possess a uniform chemical makeup regardless
of their point of origin.”^9 In a sense, it is not possible to “make a metal”—
the minerals are found, mined, and processed. For instance, the greatest
deposits of chromite in the world are in South Africa, India, Kazakhstan,
and Turkey,^10 while more than half of all cobalt stores are in the
Democratic Republic of Congo.^11 Through smelting (application of heat
and chemical reducing agents to extract metal), pure metals are isolated
and bar stock of the raw material is created. Implant manufacturers use
this raw supply of metal to make implants—an international smorgasbord