Dramatic progress has been made in making prosthetic limbs that can grasp objects, but now researchers have successfully tested a prosthetic hand that can perceive touch. Dustin Tyler and his colleagues at the Louis Stokes Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Cleveland, Ohio, have “found a way of transmitting long-term, realistic tactile sensations, such as the feel of a cotton wool ball, to two people who lost hands in industrial accidents” (“Prosthetic hand recreates feeling of cotton bud touch,”New Scientist, Oct. 15, 2014). The breakthrough was achieved by a very complex process involving connecting the prosthesis with human nerves by electrodes and a machine that provides a stream of electrical pulses. In spite of the fact that this is a very impressive feat of scientific engineering, it is a clumsy replacement for the real human hand. It is obvious that both the prosthesis and the human hand were designed and that one was designed by a vastly superior Engineer. (Friday Church News Notes, April 3, 2015, www.wayoflife.org, [email protected], 866-295-4143) Comments are closed.
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