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Orthopedic Surgeon
Specializes in bones, joints, ligaments, and muscles — from fractures to joint replacements.
Did you know?
The first recorded artificial knee, in 1890, was made of ivory. By 2011 the US alone was doing about 718,000 knee replacements a year.
How subjects help
- Biology: Understand how broken bones knit back together so you know when to remove a cast.
- Chemistry: Pick bone cements and metals that the body accepts without reacting badly.
- Physics: Work out the forces on a hip or knee to fit a replacement joint that lasts.
- Anatomy: Know exactly where bones, ligaments and nerves sit before fixing a fracture.
A famous name
John Charnley: Orthopaedic surgeon who developed the modern hip replacement operation in the 1960s.
Try it yourself: Train steady hands like a surgeon
- Put cereal in one bowl and an empty bowl a hand's length away. Move pieces one at a time with the chopsticks for one minute and count them.
- Try again with your other hand and compare the two scores.
- Lay the strings across the table a little apart and put the banana on top. Practise tying a knot over the banana with the first string.
- Time how many knots you can tie in one minute, then try to beat your score.
Surgeons practise knots and fine tool control for years, often timed on training boxes, before they stitch up a real patient.
Adapted from Imperial College London (STEM in Action): Dexterity: three activities.
Also try: Guess the object from its shadow.
Known for it in
USA, Germany, Switzerland, Australia, UK