Last weekend, 60 Minutes re-ran a story about a robotic breakthrough that may revolutionize prosthetics.
Here is an introduction to the story:
In a decade of war, more than 1,300 Americans have lost limbs on the battlefield. And that fact led the Department of Defense to start a crash program to help veterans and civilians by creating an artificial arm and hand that are amazingly human. But that’s not the breakthrough. We don’t use that word very often because it’s overused. But when you see how they have connected this robotic limb to a human brain, you’ll understand why we made an exception.
As we reported last December, to take this ultimate step they had to find a person willing to have brain surgery to explore new frontiers of what it is to be human. That person would have to be an explorer with desperate need, remarkable courage and maybe most of all, a mind that is game.
The person they chose is Jan Scheuermann, a Pittsburgh mother of two and writer, with a mind nimble enough to match wits on “The Wheel of Fortune” in 1995.