In 2008, a 227-pound loggerhead turtle named Yu was found by some fishermen off the coast of Japan after a shark attack. Both of her front flippers had been torn off and her prognosis was grim. Now, Yu can swim thanks to a new set of prosthetic flippers made by a team of researchers at the University of Tokyo. Naoki Kamezaki, curator of the Suma Aqualife Park where Yu currently lives, says, "Ours may be the only case in which a turtle with artificial limbs is still swimming without a problem."
posted by Copronymus on Mar 7, 2013 - 19 comments

Robohand: How cheap 3D printers built a replacement hand for a five-year old boy [more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns on Feb 3, 2013 - 19 comments

Body suit may soon enable the paralyzed to walk. "In a busy lab at Duke University, Dr. Miguel Nicolelis is merging brain science with engineering in a bid to create something fantastical: a full-body prosthetic device that would allow those immobilized by injury to walk again. On Wednesday, Nicolelis and an international group of collaborators declared that they had cleared a key hurdle on the path toward that goal, demonstrating they could bypass the body's complex network of nerve endings and supply the sensation of touch directly to the brains of monkeys."
posted by homunculus on Oct 6, 2011 - 37 comments

Matthew James, born without a left hand, contacted Ross Brawn at Mercedes GP to sponsor a prosthetic hand (with the Mercedes logo). Brawn was contacted because he is a former student of Matthew's school, Reading. The result, Mercedes GP has worked with Touch Bionics and Matthew has a new prosthetic hand.
posted by juiceCake on Aug 23, 2011 - 42 comments

Rebuilding Chrissy's Face. [more inside]
posted by bwg on Jul 20, 2010 - 44 comments

Filmmaker Rob Spence was blinded in his right eye, so he replaced it with a wireless video camera. He is building a video feed so people can see the world through his eye.
posted by mattdidthat on Jun 30, 2010 - 40 comments

Fuji got a new fin back in 2004 but after two years of plans and new materials Winter the dolphin is inspiring other prosthetic wearers and has a brand new tail.
posted by korej on May 5, 2008 - 5 comments

Viktor Schreckengost who died last year at the grand age of 101, was regarded by some as the father of industrial design. Every adult in America has ridden in, ridden on, drunk out of, stored their things in, eaten off of, been costumed in, etc… and there is no going past his gorgeous pedal cars. Some of his work can also be seen online at The Cleveland Museum of Art.
posted by tellurian on Apr 28, 2008 - 9 comments

The X Finger a prosthetic for digital amputees.
posted by phrontist on Jun 20, 2007 - 23 comments

Prosthetic Artist Robert Barron creates new noses, eyes, ears and hands for people who have lost them to disease or injury, or who never had them in the first place. His talent and craftsmanship are staggering. As an artist, the "outrageous", self-congratulatory flavor-of-the-month trends in the contemporary art world leave me completely cold. Where talent and craftsman ship are eschewed in favor of concept and impossibly complex jargon, I find myself drawing inspiration more and more from work like this: useful, socially relevant, beautiful.
posted by Scoo on Jan 3, 2003 - 21 comments