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Amputee athletes are running faster than ever, thanks to hi-tech carbon fiber sports prosthetics. Now Nike has designed a shoe called the Nike Sole for those prosthetic running blades.
Designed to work with the Össur Flex-Run blade, the Sole was a collaborative effort between Nike and triathlete Sarah Reinertsen. Like a normal running shoe, the Sole has an outsole and a midsole, and grips the carbon fiber blade with a material called Aeroply. Nike’s engineers even devised a clever system to secure the Sole to the blade, using an anchor and a rubber strip.
While it’s easy to dismiss this as either a cynical cash-in or an attempt to grab some good publicity, the Sole shows that a level of social acceptance and technological advancement where formerly insurmountable challenges now have consumer-grade solutions. I think we’re getting closer to the future, folks.
See a video of the shoe in action at Geekosystem. Link
The man calling himself the Eyeborg has put together a short documentary detailing modern bionics and cutting edge prosthetics, part of which was filmed using his eye camera.
Rob Spence lost his eye in a firearm accident a few years back, but the filmmaker refused to stop doing what he loved, so he had a prosthetic eye camera specially designed, and thus became the first person to have a implanted camera replace their eye.
Square Enix are Rob’s newest sponsors, and they have commissioned him to make a video that compares modern prosthetics and bionics to the bodily enhancements found in the new game Deus Ex: Human Revolution.
Follow either of the links below and check out this amazing, cutting edge video by the first bionic cameraman, and see how medical science is quickly catching up to science fiction.
Gamera, a 12-year-old African spur-thighed tortoise, recently underwent an amputation of his front left leg after suffering a life-threatening “severe thermal injury and tissue damage from an unknown source.” The team at Washington State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine hooked Gamera up with an office-chair caster (attached with epoxy) and a feeding tube to help him recover. The tortoise has gained about three pounds in three months and can get around just fine on most surfaces with his new limb. (Insert “that’s how he rolls” joke here.) Link
via Gizmodo
Dugan Smith of Fostoria, Ohio, was ten years old when he was diagnosed with bone cancer. After chemotherapy, his leg was removed, but part of it was reattached -backward!
Known as a rotationplasty, his surgery involved removing a large section of his right leg that surrounded the tumour – from below his knee to about mid-thigh – then reattaching the lower limb to the shortened upper thigh.
The twist, so to speak, is that Dugan’s lower leg was rotated 180 degrees and sewn on backwards.
His ankle now acts as his knee, his calf has replaced the lower part of his thigh and his backwards-facing foot slips into a prosthetic and powers the reversed muscles and joint with an up-and-down motion.
“I’ll be able to play basketball and baseball – baseball’s my favourite sport,” says Dugan, a seventh grader who pitches and plays first base on his junior high school’s baseball team in Fostoria, Ohio. “Just knowing I would be able to play those made my mind go straight at it.”
It took 18 months of physical therapy for Dugan to learn a new way to use his leg. Now 13, he is playing baseball again. Link -via J-Walk Blog
Midnight the miniature horse was born missing part of one leg, and then was so neglected by his owner that he was seized by authorities. The adorable horse was close to being euthanized when the staff at Ranch Hand Rescue came up with a plan to get Midnight a new leg. You have to watch this one all the way through -you’ll be glad you did! Link -via Gizmodo
Reddit member captaincripple lost a leg in a motorcycle accident a year ago. He asked the forum for design suggestions for his prosthetic, and decided to go with a Terminator theme. He unveiled the finished leg today. The artwork is by Stuart Vimpani of Brisbane, Australia. Link
Film critic Roger Ebert’s jawbone was partially removed due to cancer in 2006. Through his recovery and several failed attempts at reconstruction, he lost the ability to speak, eat, or drink, but he continued to review movies and post to his website. Meanwhile, Dr. David J. Reisberg and David Rotter from the University of Illinois and artist Julie Jordan Brown worked to make Ebert a new prosthetic chin, which was recently fitted.
I will wear the prosthesis on the new television show. That’s not to fool anyone, because my appearance is widely known. It will be used in a medium shot of me working in my office, and will be a pleasant reminder of the person I was for 64 years. Symbolically, it’s as if my illness never happened and, hey, here I still am, on the show with these new kids. When people see the “Roger’s Office” segment, they’ll notice my voice more than my appearance.
At the beginning of this process I assumed I would wear the new prosthesis whenever I left the house, so that “nobody would know.” But everybody knows. The photograph of me that appeared in Esquire even found its way onto billboards in China. And something else has happened since that day in the hospital: I accept the way I look. Lord knows I paid the dues.
Read the rest of the story at Ebert’s blog. Link -via Metafilter
Ebert’s new television series, “Ebert Presents at the Movies” premieres tomorrow on PBS. Link
Tungo the penguin was found on a beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil unable to eat because his beak had been shattered, probably by a boat propeller. Veterinarians at the local zoo made him a new acrylic beak, fashioned in the shape of the broken pieces of his old beak. Tungo is recovering nicely and is able to eat. Link (with video) -via Arbroath
Morten Traavik, the artist who founded the Miss Landmine pageant in Angola (featured previously at Neatorama) also organized a similar beauty pageant in Cambodia. After expressing support for the contest, the Cambodian government has withdrawn permission.
An exhibition of photographs of the contests was due to open on Friday, with the top prize of an artificial leg for the winner of an internet vote. But over the weekend the government ordered the organisers “to stop activity immediately in order to keep the honour and dignity of handicapped Cambodians, especially women”.
Traavik has requested a meeting with authorities over the issue. Link -via Arbroath
(image credit: Flickr user *christopher*)
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Mitchell and Webb Take on Gordon Ramsay
This is a hilarious skit that sends up the foul-mouthed kitchen coach. (language NSFW) |
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How DNA Copies Itself
From the PBS program “DNA The Secret of Life”. |
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Richard Dawkins: Why are there still chimpanzees?
Richard Dawkins clears up the misunderstanding of Evolution that is all too common: If we descended from Chimpanzees, then why are there still Chimpanzees? |
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Uncanny Drew Carey Look-Alike on The Price is Right
He is the spittin’ image of Drew- but then so is every high school woodshop teacher in the US. |
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Cutting Edge Prosthetic Arms
Motorized prosthetic arms are now being matched to nerve endings beneath the skin – it seems we’re just a few steps away from Luke Skywalker’s robo-hand. |
For more the web’s most interesting videos, check out: VideoSift.
