Top TechTop Tech #136: Neurotechnological Touch, Electric Space Propulsion, 3D Ribs
Important innovations in science and technology
By Paul Worthington
Tuesday’s Top Tech:
• Neurotechnology Provides Near-Natural Sense of Touch
• Electric propulsion satellite now in space
• 3D-printed ribs surgically implanted
Neurotechnology Provides Near-Natural Sense of Touch
Those with paralyzed or missing limbs may soon manipulate objects by sending signals from their brain to robotic devices — and also sense precisely what those devices are touching.
“Sophisticated neural technologies” developed as part of DARPA’s Revolutionizing Prosthetics initiative provide natural-feeling sensations to prosthetics, the agency says.
Last week it announced that “a 28-year-old who has been paralyzed for more than a decade as a result of a spinal cord injury has become the first person to be able to “feel” physical sensations through a prosthetic hand directly connected to his brain, and even identify which mechanical finger is being gently touched… By wiring a sense of touch from a mechanical hand directly into the brain, this work shows the potential for seamless bio-technological restoration of near-natural function.” Also, wire arrays from the volunteer’s motor cortex to a mechanical hand “gave the capacity to control the hand’s movements with his thoughts.”
Of course, there are many other implications from successfully “wiring a sense of touch …directly into the brain…”
Here is the full announcement.
Electric propulsion satellite now in space
Electric propulsion satellite now in space
There’s been plenty of talk about upcoming methods for travel — but one has moved off the drawing boards and into orbit: Asia Broadcast Satellite reports it’s launched a communications satellite with electric propulsion.
(Well, it didn’t launch via electric propulsion — the ion engines are for maneuvering in space. The Boeing-built device actually got into orbit onboard a SpaceX Falcon 9, and that was many months ago… The news here is the satellite is now fully operational using only the electric engines.)
Boeing claims it’s “the world’s first all-electric propulsion satellite… The spacecraft’s all-electric xenon-ion propulsion system contains a sufficient quantity of the inert, non-hazardous element xenon to extend the satellite’s operations beyond the expected spacecraft design life of 15 years.”
Engadget reports that’s a tenth the amount of propellant that a conventional satellite would require.
3D-printed ribs surgically implanted
Melbourne-based medical device company Anatomics manufactures patient-specific implants — and has now utilized 3D-printing to make titanium ribs.
A patient in Spain suffering from cancer in the chest received the 3D-printed titanium sternum and rib implant — “a new type of implant that we could fully customize to replicate the intricate structures of the sternum and ribs,” the surgeon says. The surgery is billed as a world-first.
Relax in Nature
It’s a good time to get out of your crowded city to enjoy the natural beauty of a private home in the Sierra Nevada, and leisurely explore nearby Yosemite National Park.
You’ll be comfortable in a large and fully-stocked house with a great view from the deck, a sunroom patio with an indoor hot tub, an outdoor pool, all on 15 acres of mountain forest.
All for less than $200 per night. Reserve your vacation home now.
