Laser-like reflexes may take on whole new meaning

Southern Methodist University research funded by the federal Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has overcome a huge hurdle on the road to prosthetic limbs powered by infrared (IR) lasers, according to a recent report on the university's Web site.

Thanks to micro-scale sensors developed by Volkan Otugen, director of SMU's Micro-Sensor Laboratory, R&D on prosthetic limbs that could offer wearers the seamless movement and sensation of a real limb is moving swiftly, the Web site noted, citing a Wired magazine report on the research.

The sensors, it seems, have "enough sensitivity to detect—and trigger—the infinitesimally small perturbations of a single activated nerve," according to the report. "The soft spheres are a few hundred microns in diameter—small enough to fit hundreds onto a single optical fiber—and the consistency of Jell-O."

Read the full excerpt here.