Towards Prosthetic Limbs

Fight Aging!

Do you want to live a longer life in good health? Simple practices can make some difference, such as exercise or calorie restriction. But over the long haul all that really matters is progress in medicine: building new classes of therapy to repair and reverse the known root causes of aging. The sooner these treatments arrive, the more lives will be saved. Find out how to help »

What will arrive first: tissue engineered or regenerated replacement limbs, or prosthetic limbs that function just as fully as the original? From Wired: "Cyberhand would be attached to amputees below the elbow and covered by several layers of synthetic material that would seek to copy the features of a natural hand by making the prosthetic replacement soft, compliant, and flexible. ... Patton says it represents 'the first prosthetic hand that really is fully integrated into the nervous system.' Linked to the nerves by tiny electrodes and biomimetic sensors, it would let patients sense the position and movement of the hand as well as stimuli from the outside environment." There is still a great deal of work to do, but scientists are making impressive progress in tapping into the peripheral nervous system.

Link: http://www.wired.com/news/medtech/0,1286,69749,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_4