Revolution in Artificial Limbs Brings Feeling Back to Amputees

By Josh Fischmann for National Geographic Published February 22, 2014 Something is missing. Every amputee knows it, and it is more than the arm or leg they have lost. They can get replacements for those limbs: substitutes made from metal and plastic, controlled by advanced computer chips, with the ability to grip, to turn, to step. On the outside the limbs can appear lifelike, and on the inside they are amazing machines. But they are tools, not part of the patients themselves. They have no sensitivity, and no instant response to a patient’s intentions. Because of that lack of feeling and control, says Dennis Aabo Sørensen, a 36-year-old from Denmark who lost his left hand in a fireworks explosion nearly a decade ago, he could tell what he was touching with his prosthetic hand only by looking at it. Read Article Here