Prosthetic arms have existed for a good long while, in various guises. For the most part they've been poor replacements for the real thing, with amputees having to put up with hook hands, plastic limbs, or some other manner of pretend arm, leg, or other body part that don't really match up to the originals. How come we've not got to, say, Luke Skywalker's good-as-new robot arm from Empire Strikes Back? Funnily enough, despite happening a long time ego, we're only just getting around to that particular bit of Star Wars tech. Lightsabers might be more fun, and Death Stars would certainly change the battlefield of modern war considerably, but the working, durable, moving prophetic limbs seen in the series are probably the most useful in the contemporary world. And some crazy breakthroughs have been made with such limbs recently. Earlier this year saw the first such replacement that moves based on brain activity, just like a real arm, and just this month doctors at Johns Hopkins University outfitted a double amputee with two similar robot arms that work like a charm.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
