An astonishing scientific breakthrough allowing the brain to control a mechanical arm -- meaning hope is at hand for patients with limited or nonexistent motor skills -- is why man's reach always must exceed his grasp.
Dr. Andrew Schwartz, a professor of neurobiology at the University of Pittsburgh, and his team of scientists from Pitt and Carnegie Mellon University have made a giant leap that soon could allow anyone with a paralyzing condition to control his life in ways heretofore almost unimaginable.
Scientists implanted a grid with 100 tiny electrodes (about the size of a large freckle) on the motor cortex in two monkeys.
The grid in each monkey was connected to a neuron with wires from the brain to a computer that analyzed the collective firing of the neurons, translated that into an electronic command and sent it instantaneously to the arm.
Each controlled its mechanical arm just with thoughts, using the arm to reach for and grab food and even adjust for a morsel's size and stickiness, scientists reported in the journal Nature.
Kudos indeed to the Schwartz team for accomplishing what others in the brain-machine interface field have been trying to do.
When science is uncluttered by political agendas, dubious methodology and other junk, every miracle is within the reach of the mind of man.
