Lifeboat Foundation

The ‘bionic’ girl who doesn’t eat, rarely sleeps and didn’t even feel pain.

Meet 7-year-old Ethan, who received his bionic Hero Arm yesterday at the Hanger Clinic in Aurora, Illinois. Ethan contracted sepsis shortly after his second birthday and he was given a five per cent chance of survival, but the superhero in him fought and survived. Stay strong, Ethan, and may the Force be with you! ✨ 😍 💪 #EthanStrong

3D-printed ‘flexoskeletons’ make it possible to build a soft robot in less than two hours without extravagant costs.

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A.I. has already gotten to almost sci-fi levels of emulating brain activity, so much so that amputees can experience mind-controlled robotic arms, and neural networks might soon be a thing. That still wasn’t enough for the brains behind one ambitious startup, though.

Continue reading “Cyborg computer chips will get their brain from human neurons” »

A brain–machine interface that enables multi-channel recordings of neural activity could improve human prosthetics and enhance understanding of the brain.

Research involving bowhead whales has suggested that it may one day be possible to extend the human lifespan to 200 years.

From the demigods of Greek mythology to the superheroes of 20th century comic books, we’ve been intrigued by the idea of human enhancement for quite a while, but we’ve also worried about negative consequences. Both in the Greek myths and modern comics and television, each enhanced human has been flawed in some way.

Continue reading “Creating Superman (and woman): Who benefits from human enhancement?” »

“We are not there yet but we think this could be the basis of a speech prosthesis,” said Dr Joseph Makin, co-author of the research from the University of California, San Francisco.

Writing in the journal Nature Neuroscience, Makin and colleagues reveal how they developed their system by recruiting four participants who had electrode arrays implanted in their brain to monitor epileptic seizures.

These participants were asked to read aloud from 50 set sentences multiple times, including “Tina Turner is a pop singer”, and “Those thieves stole 30 jewels”. The team tracked their neural activity while they were speaking.

Over the last five years, London-based photographer David Vintiner and art director Gemma Fletcher have been documenting the subculture of transhumanists across Europe, Russia and the United States. Their photobook I Want To Believe, due out this spring, explores these enthusiasts’ achievements and motivations.

Dispatches from the transhumanist movement.

Photo: EPNAC

TAMPA, Fla. — When Special Operations Command set out to create what would be popularly known as the ‘Iron Man suit’ seven years ago, developers assumed that the state-of-the-art in body armor would not improve much over the next few years.

That assumption led the command down a development path that would actually make the Tactical Assault Light Operator Suit resemble the comic book hero with heavy armor from head to toe and a power system and exoskeleton needed to help the operator move in the bulky suit.