AMPUTATION MADE EASY AND (RELATIVELY) FUN

[defrog]

ITEM: A British surgeon volunteering in the Democratic Republic of Congo performs a life-saving arm amputation by receiving SMS instructions from a doctor in London.

The patient – a 16-year-old boy whose arm was bitten off by a hippo while fishing, forcing the doctor to remove the rest of the arm at the shoulderblade – made a full recovery.

ITEM: Researchers at Johns Hopkins University have made Guitar Hero into a tool for amputees being fitted with the next generation of artificial arms.

With a few electrodes and some very powerful algorithms, amputees can hit all the notes of Pat Benatar’s “Hit Me With Your Best Shot” using only the electrical signals from their residual muscles.

Wonderful things we can do with technology these days.

FULL DISCLOSURE: I fully admit that when I read the first story, my first thought was: “Hippos can DO that?”

I’m sorry.

Beware of hippos,

This is dF

Comments

[jasonfranks.livejournal.com]

Fun fact: Hippos kill more humans than any other animal on the planet!

-- JF