Pure Pedantry : Next Generation Prothestics

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Jake Young is a MD/PhD student at Mount Sinai School of Medicine focusing in Neuroscience. He is due to graduate in 2032. He received a BS and a MS in Biological Sciences from Stanford University -- where he spent most of his time drinking heavily and building vegetable catapults instead of learning information that would now be eminently useful. When he is not failing terrifically to perform his sworn duties, he enjoys watching bad movies, ethnic food, and running.

Pure Pedantry is a blog about science -- social sciences and otherwise -- as well as academic and scientific culture. No one can live on science alone, so I also like to dwell on pop culture, periodically explore the humanities, and indulge in other types of geeky goodness.

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Next Generation Prothestics

Category: Technology
Posted on: June 2, 2008 10:57 AM, by Jake Young

Check out this video about the next generation of prosthetics (below the fold):

More at Wired Science.

This is interesting to me because of the microprocessors that they put in the arm as controllers. Most people don't think about this but movement in the human body is coordinated by a variety of subsystem, many of them in the spine. It is sort of like your brain triggers a motion, but then delegates the coordination of that motion to other systems -- often beneath your conscious perception. The microprocessors in the arm are in some sense taking over for these subsystems.

A very interesting technique in prosthetics design.

Hat-tip: Slashdot

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