Orthopaedics: Structural support

In the 1960s, a remarkable substance called etidronate came into use as an effective treatment for bone problems. Etidronate is a bisphosphonate, a class of material known since the late 1800s to inhibit metal crystallization and corrosion, a feature that led to its wide usage in the oil and gas industry. More than 60 years later, researchers at Proctor & Gamble found that bisphosphonates are just as effective at preventing the destruction of bones in the human body as they are at stopping metal degradation. Proctor & Gamble began marketing etidronate as Didronel, and it soon became a standard treatment for muscle calcification, Paget's disease of bone, heterotropic ossification (in which bone is formed outside the skeleton), menopausal osteoporosis and, finally, bone degradation in multiple myeloma. Nature 480, S56–S57; (15 December 2011) PDF