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| http://biomech.media.mit.edu |
On the first anniversary of the Boston
Marathon bombing I wanted to share a TED
talk by Hugh Herr, head of MIT’s
Media Lab’s Biomechatronics group. A
double amputee himself he demonstrates what prosthetics, biomechanical limbs
are capable of and what they can do into the future. He maintains that people are never broken,
but the technology is.
To
demonstrate what he can do, he brings to the talk ballroom dancer Adrianne
Haslet-Davis, who lost her left leg in the Boston Marathon bombing, to perform for
the first time since she lost her leg on the TED stage. It’s a modest, but emotionally powerful dance.
As someone who had a traumatic lower leg
injury and nearly lost a leg to a sporting accident I can tell you, that not
only standing up straight and walking, but dancing, and having the mental
strength to do so is awe-inspiring. The leg’s
movements are phenomenal and I’m inspired to see that had I lost a leg, maybe I’d
be very ok today.
