19^th century English dentist Charles Stent, who invented a dental impression compound, could never have imagined he would be the namesake of implantable “stents” for bones, blood vessels, biliary ducts, et al.  The connection, though, is in biomaterials.  Most stents today are made of metal, but biodegradable polymers have been used successfully though they lack the strength of metal. Researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (Zurich), however, have now created a zinc-magnesium “metallic glass” that appears to be both biocompatible and biodegradable, without releasing troublesome hydrogen ions from the biocorrosion of pure magnesium.    MORE