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Vesayen
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for some reason when apolyton is auto-linking my link, it is screwing it up.... put a http://www. before the following:
thisisgloucestershire.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=74375&command=displayContent&sourceNode=73927&contentPK=6989026
PLASTIC NERVES MAKE BIONIC MAN A REALITY
11:00 - 10 September 2003
The Bionic Man, the half-human, half-machine hero of the eponymous TV series, will soon become a reality, scientists revealed last night. Recent advances in micro-engineering have enabled researchers to rebuild parts of the central nervous system - the network of electrical fibres which sends commands to different groups of muscles in the arms, legs and other parts of the body.
British scientists are already working on developing artificial limbs with synthetic, plastic nerves which are spliced into nerve endings on the stump of the old leg, using the same techniques as for developing computer chips.
In America a man has been fitted with a robotic arm and hand which is wired into his central nervous system. He can move his limb and fingers around and pick up objects.
Meanwhile, in Portugal, a totally blind man has been fitted with artificial eyes which send electrical impulses directly into his brain.
The latest research was reported yesterday at the annual meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. Dr Michael Pycraft Hughes, an expert in biomedical engineering at Surrey University, said: "You could say that we have the technology to rebuild people, but not quite like the Bionic Man because it's not better, stronger, faster.
"We're learning to use technology to make copies of nature, but the copies are not necessarily as good as the real thing yet."
Dr Pycraft Hughes has helped develop advanced prosthetic legs with titanium 'bones' which fuse to the bone in the wearer's stump.
Trials with more than 20 people without legs in Britain have shown they can move around much more naturally than users of conventional prosthetic limbs.
He is now experimenting with development of synthetic nerves which could be spliced into the nerves of a leg stump so that the wearer's new limb could be made touch sensitive.
And in the past five years hundreds of patients in Britain, Sweden and America have been fitted with advanced cochlear implants, or artificial ears, which have allowed totally deaf children and adults to hear for the first time.
Cochlear implants work by converting sound waves into electrical impulses and linking up with the nerves in the brain.
Last edited by Vesayen on 11-09-2003 at 21:35
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Vesayen
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I dont know, do they always publish everything first?
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11-09-2003 21:30
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