Earlier today we watched Dr. Todd Kuiken and patient Jesse Sullivan. Jesse was a lineman for an electric company who touched a live wire and was hit twice with major voltage. He had to have both arms amputated. Dr. Kuiken has been working with him on prostheses that are extraordinary. They've wired nerves into his chest that control the prosthetic arm with his thoughts. I can't do this justice -- the technology was amazing, and Jesse is inspiring. Standing ovation, and my eyes filled with tears. I'll link to a picture once they're live, but I'm amazed by this world. Here's an article about Jesse at the Reconstruction Institute of Chicago.
[Right now Marcia McNutt, a smart and hip and inspiring deep sea explorer, is scaring me by talking about the increasingly acid composition of the ocean. By the end of this century, she says, the ocean will be more acidic than it has ever been in 400 million years. Think acid rain, but in the ocean, dissolving the calcium-based shells of molluscs.... Yikes. Whoah. She switched gears from the gloom and doom to show us a worm with no mouth, no stomach, and no digestive system that eats whale's bone marrow. There are some amazing critters down deep in the ocean. Glorious mystery.]
It was really pretty funny. On the other hand, we never read newspaper reports about a proudly sobered up Dennis Hopper being charged with drunk driving in downtown Los Angeles after he struck a fire hydrant at 3 AM and was arrested along with his passenger, an underage transgendered prostitute etc, etc, etc...
Posted by: r4 ds lite | February 09, 2010 at 07:23 AM