Tuesday, April 12, 2005

Six Million Dollar Man

Well, not quite Steve Austin, but if DARPA gets their way, within four years- read that again, four years- we will soon have available a prosthetic arm that "will be controlled, feel, look and perform like the native limb". I've said it before and I'll no doubt say it again, but we appear to be in a time of rapid technological advancement- spearheaded by the USA and in particular their military. The next decade is going to be a particularly interesting time to live through.

The development of highly advanced artificial limbs like this will be of particular benefit to those US servicemen injured in combat. As ACE detailed in a post some time ago, in Iraq the survival rate for those injured in combat is much higher than in any other conflict and one of the reasons for this is battlefield amputations. This extreme method has proven to be be highly successful in saving lives and it is fantastic to hear that DARPA is making this effort to aid these men. Of course it goes without saying that this development will also aid civilian amputees around the world.

Hat tip to LGF for the story.

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