WASHINGTON -- In April 2003, in Baghdad, Army Specialist Garth Stewart stepped on a land mine. The blast blew off half his left leg. The next thing he knew, he was in a military hospital being prepped for the eventual fitting of a prosthesis.
Today, Stewart is a poster boy for the Army's latest generation of "intelligent" robotic limbs that move and flex like real limbs -- and adapt themselves to a wearer's unique gait. Prostheses have come a long way since the wooden peg leg, but in the future they might not be necessary at all. One military medical institute is working to grow new body parts from human and animal "seed" tissue. ...
|