Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff from the Science Lab from how stuff
Speaker 1: works dot com. Hey guys, and welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 1: This is Alison Madamouth, the science editor how stuff flix
Speaker 1: dot com. And this is Robert Lamb science We're right
Speaker 1: or how stuff works dot com. Tell me, Allison, have
Speaker 1: you ever secretly wished you had a prosthetic arm, like
Speaker 1: a fake you know, like a robotic hand or anything. Um,
Speaker 1: until this afternoon, I might have answered you with a no.
Speaker 1: But there's some pretty cool prosthetic devices out there and
Speaker 1: a little research into Oscar Pistorius. Have you have you
Speaker 1: heard about this guy? You probably did? Oh, this is
Speaker 1: the blade Runner, right, yeah, yeah, he's awesome. Um, and
Speaker 1: it's funny too because I actually do think about prosthetic
Speaker 1: limbs when I'm when I'm running, that's when I've most
Speaker 1: thought about it, and I think, you know, wow, I'm
Speaker 1: really grateful to have my legs and running and gosh,
Speaker 1: my legs are tired, and maybe I should go get
Speaker 1: a blade Runner like Oscar, Like maybe you should. You
Speaker 1: should lose your legs and replace them with with super
Speaker 1: high tech prosthetics like a cheetah. That thing is awesome. Hey,
Speaker 1: just so you guys know, we are going to be
Speaker 1: talking about prosthetic limbs today, and we know that there
Speaker 1: are a lot of people out there who have lost
Speaker 1: a limb, and we don't take that lightly, but we
Speaker 1: will be talking pretty candidly about it today. Yeah, And uh,
Speaker 1: like I have I have this kind of mixed thing
Speaker 1: about it because as a kid, I loved the idea
Speaker 1: of like having like a robot hand or something because
Speaker 1: it was all over the place. You know. It's like
Speaker 1: you're watching Pirate movies and they have peg legs, or
Speaker 1: you're watching like he Man cartoons and it's kind of
Speaker 1: lockjaw and he had like this big robot arm and
Speaker 1: and so you know, it's and I still find a
Speaker 1: lot of that stuff really cool. You know. It's all that,
Speaker 1: you know, a billion dollar man type of thing, you know, um,
Speaker 1: and you know, cyborgs and making somebody stronger through technology,
Speaker 1: h and impervious. You know. But then at the same time,
Speaker 1: I like, I'll think about it, you know, I'll be
Speaker 1: like typing or something like, man, if I lost a
Speaker 1: hand would really suck, Like how would I move my mouse?
Speaker 1: You know? Um, you know, and well you might not
Speaker 1: use that fictionality with some of the technologies available today.
Speaker 1: That's right, and we're going to talk about some of them,
Speaker 1: but can we talk about Oscar for a second blade runner? Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: we were talking about him. So just a reminder for
Speaker 1: those of you guys who don't remember him. He used
Speaker 1: the sprinter who was on track to make the South
Speaker 1: African Olympic team. And according to a Wired story by
Speaker 1: Josh mqugh, this was an Oscar story. He was born
Speaker 1: with two toes on each tiny foot, and each leg
Speaker 1: was missing its fibula. And the fibula is that long,
Speaker 1: thin bone that connects your calf muscle and it forms
Speaker 1: outside the ankle. So they were pretty bad shape. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was missing actually, So it was pretty much a
Speaker 1: situation of either keep these and use a wheelchair for
Speaker 1: the rest of your life, or double amputee and sort
Speaker 1: of start from scratch, put some prosthetics on there and
Speaker 1: you know, and learn how to use them at an
Speaker 1: early age, right, So Oscar's parents obviously went with the
Speaker 1: latter choice, and at each one and a off. According
Speaker 1: to a Wired arter mceugh, the Storiers took his first
Speaker 1: steps on a set of fiber last pigs, and now
Speaker 1: he's pretty darned fast on them, just to give you
Speaker 1: an idea of how fast he can cover nine point
Speaker 1: four meters per second on them. Yeah, and if you
Speaker 1: haven't seen a picture of these, I mean, do have
Speaker 1: do a search for it, because it's it's really awesome.
Speaker 1: I think either this guy or a guy with a
Speaker 1: pair of these showed up in the first season of
Speaker 1: My Name is Earl, No kidding. Yeah, he like runs
Speaker 1: around on him and it looks awesome because they have
Speaker 1: this like they've been backwards and they're like springing in
Speaker 1: to the untrained eye, they look just like a curved
Speaker 1: piece of metal, you know, and not something that's like
Speaker 1: ultra you know. It looks a little bit like a
Speaker 1: hockey like a hockey stick. And yeah, imagine a guy
Speaker 1: like running on like hockey sticks and except just having
Speaker 1: like this awesome spring to his step and just like
Speaker 1: really fast. It's it's kind of amazing. Yeah, and they're
Speaker 1: pretty expensive too for all that spring and power. There
Speaker 1: between fifteen thousand and eighteen thousand, uh per per cheetah
Speaker 1: per blate. So stories is fate for the two thousand
Speaker 1: and eight Olympics was that he eventually was cleared and
Speaker 1: he was going to be able to run in the
Speaker 1: Beijing Olympics if you qualified. Um, but he in fact didn't.
Speaker 1: He didn't he didn't make the Olympic qualifying standard in
Speaker 1: the four hundred. But this is kind of interesting. I
Speaker 1: was thinking about it. I mean, Oscar is so fast
Speaker 1: that I was wondering, you know, with these types of
Speaker 1: cheetah blades and and these type of prosthetic devices, could
Speaker 1: we eventually see the Paralympics, you know, breaking records that
Speaker 1: the Olympic athletes camp. I don't know, it's worth it's
Speaker 1: worth thinking about. You know. It's the as the technology
Speaker 1: improves and we we get we're better able to to
Speaker 1: replicate you know, the use we would get out of
Speaker 1: an actual limb, you know, stands the reason we might
Speaker 1: reach the point where we could you know, improve upon
Speaker 1: the design to certain degree and improve they have. Prosthetic
Speaker 1: devices have come a long way. Yeah, there was you know,
Speaker 1: there was a time long ago where have you lost
Speaker 1: your arm to a you know, a savor tooth tiger
Speaker 1: and whatnot. Then I don't know about a savor tooth.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure about the crossover. They would say, Willy
Speaker 1: mammoth bits your arm off you know, you wouldn't be
Speaker 1: able to really get a prosthetic but but they really
Speaker 1: started popping up pretty early in history. Did they found
Speaker 1: one on a mummy? Didn't they like a fake toe? Yes?
Speaker 1: They did. They found a three thousand year old fake
Speaker 1: toe on an Egyptian noblewoman. Yeah. And oh, and tell
Speaker 1: me about the Roman dude. I will tell you about
Speaker 1: the Roman dude. The Roman dude was a guy named
Speaker 1: Marcus Surgis, and he was a Roman general who lost
Speaker 1: his right hand while he was battling in the one
Speaker 1: of one of the Panick Wars, and Marcus ordered a
Speaker 1: replacement hand made of iron to hold his shield, and
Speaker 1: he he got his Roman self back out there on
Speaker 1: the battlefield. That was a tough guy. Yeah, and this
Speaker 1: is this ties into the whole like childhood, like you know,
Speaker 1: love of the idea of prosthetic limbs. Like here's a
Speaker 1: guy that's so awesome. He like goes out and he's,
Speaker 1: you know, he's a he's this you know, action killing machine.
Speaker 1: And then like they take his hand and he's like
Speaker 1: I can just you know, slap a shield on there
Speaker 1: and I'm good to go. So that's that's pretty impressive.
Speaker 1: So one thing is that Old Marcus may have been
Speaker 1: buried with his amputated limb, because people used to believe
Speaker 1: that if you lost a limb while you were on earth,
Speaker 1: that you should be buried with it, because otherwise you
Speaker 1: might be limbless in the afterlife as well. It kind
Speaker 1: of like with the mummies in the Coptic jars with
Speaker 1: their organs and them. But of course, what road group
Speaker 1: in history was renowned for their prosthetics. That would be
Speaker 1: the pirates indeed, and we'll go ahead, sorry, Oh, it's
Speaker 1: just gonna point out that in the Atlanta area there's
Speaker 1: actually an amputee Prosthetic clinic Um and they have a
Speaker 1: they have a pirate on the sign, like a cartoon pirate,
Speaker 1: and their their phone number. I probably can't give out
Speaker 1: the first part of it, but it's like, you know, like,
Speaker 1: you know whatever, whatever, fake leg you know. Okay, So
Speaker 1: that's direct and to the point. Yeah, and and interesting
Speaker 1: too because it's like, you know, they seem to have
Speaker 1: a real sense of humor or you know, about the
Speaker 1: use of prosthetics and love pirates. So it's interesting. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So back in the back in the olden days of
Speaker 1: wood and metal and leather with the were the materials
Speaker 1: of choice for for your prosthetic limbs. But now we've
Speaker 1: we've become kind of high tech because we're talking a
Speaker 1: little bit about with oscar. So let's talk about some
Speaker 1: of the newer ones. And meanwhile, we should probably give
Speaker 1: you a little run through through the basic parts of
Speaker 1: a prosthetic limb. Yeah, these are the basics. Um, you're
Speaker 1: gonna want. You're gonna want a pie one, you sure will,
Speaker 1: because it's like the heart of the prosthetic. Yeah, this
Speaker 1: is I mean, this is like the skeleton, internal frame.
Speaker 1: You know, this is replacing the bone that was lost essentially, right,
Speaker 1: it's providing the structural support. And you used to be
Speaker 1: often made from metal rods. Nowadays you might be looking
Speaker 1: at a lighter carbon fiber type composite. And then you
Speaker 1: have the socket, right, And so the socket is the
Speaker 1: part of the prosthetic device that meets the residual limb
Speaker 1: or the limb stump as the case maybe. And a
Speaker 1: good few here is obviously going to be critical because
Speaker 1: you don't want that thing rubbing against you the wrong way.
Speaker 1: I mean, come on, yeah, yeah, So good fit here
Speaker 1: is really critical. And then lastly, you have the suspension system,
Speaker 1: you gotta have something to attach it to your body
Speaker 1: or make sure it stays on. And this could be
Speaker 1: you know, whether it's just a suction which is pretty cool, um,
Speaker 1: or you might have some sort of harness system or
Speaker 1: a strap at belt or sleeve and uh, they can
Speaker 1: be pretty inconspicuous. Yeah, um, but yeah, I guess there's
Speaker 1: the strap ones are kind of the old model, right right,
Speaker 1: and I think this section is is more current. Um,
Speaker 1: but let's talk about some of the super cool ones.
Speaker 1: Enough with the definition stuff, let's set to So why
Speaker 1: don't we have such a need for this? I mean,
Speaker 1: war definitely, um. I mean you have somebody rolling over
Speaker 1: a roadside bomb and maybe they actually survive that incident,
Speaker 1: but they lose a limb. In fact, a lot of
Speaker 1: soldiers are coming back from Afghanistan and Iraq and uh
Speaker 1: theaters around the world, and you know they've lost a
Speaker 1: limb or they've lost multiple limbs. And then you have
Speaker 1: areas the world where you still have a lot of
Speaker 1: land mines and unexploded unexploded ordinance. So um, you know
Speaker 1: people are losing limbs sadly to that, right, and then
Speaker 1: you throw an accidents with machinery or fireworks, and you
Speaker 1: have a pretty major need in both developing and developed countries.
Speaker 1: Now this is something that I was really I found
Speaker 1: really exciting. And this is they called this ostio integration,
Speaker 1: right and uh and this is a apparently titanium can
Speaker 1: be made to to actually fuse with the bone. Oh right,
Speaker 1: I was heading about that in popular mechanics. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so this is like the ultimate you know, talking about
Speaker 1: anchoring systems, Like if you can actually anchor it to
Speaker 1: the bone, um, you know, in a very you know,
Speaker 1: firm manner, then then that's that's better than any of
Speaker 1: these methods. Um. Yeah. And so far they've used it
Speaker 1: in a like dental um and facial implants, and of
Speaker 1: course now it's being considered for limb prosthetics. Yeah. Well
Speaker 1: they used it on German shepherd named Cassidy. Indeed they did.
Speaker 1: And it looks like North Carolina State University is going
Speaker 1: to try us six more of these operations in two
Speaker 1: thousand ten that involve asso integration on impute dogs and
Speaker 1: possibly an aweso lot. It's I mean, it's amazing like
Speaker 1: some of the animal prosthetically come up with which on
Speaker 1: all one level. It's like it's like this is the
Speaker 1: place to test you know, technologies, you know, because animals
Speaker 1: are really bad about like losing limbs. You know how
Speaker 1: many three legged cats and dogs you see all the time, right,
Speaker 1: and it never see to make a darn bit of difference. Well,
Speaker 1: they don't really generally, they don't seem to care. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm good. Yeah, but you sent me a picture of
Speaker 1: the elephant with the prosthetic yeah, from the tie Burmese border. Um. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I lost the leg and they created this this prosthetic
Speaker 1: leg for an elephant that was pretty pretty amazing. And
Speaker 1: we also saw when we were like when we were
Speaker 1: researching this of the bill. Oh yeah, the Romanian start
Speaker 1: name Uzonka sus Lanka's Lanka got a processus. Yeah, like
Speaker 1: somebody had been mean to these birds, to this bird
Speaker 1: and damaged its bill, and they created a prosthetic bill
Speaker 1: so it can function. More recently, I saw Dean Cayman's one.
Speaker 1: Did you see the video on the Colbert Show or yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: with that awesome hand right, very high five Colbert with
Speaker 1: a this prosthetic arm. Yeah. So this was the founder
Speaker 1: of first Dean Cayman and it's pretty cool. Yeah, as
Speaker 1: far as I know, it's it's not available, but the
Speaker 1: technology is is pretty advanced. So this arm can pick
Speaker 1: up a raisin or a grape on the table without
Speaker 1: destroying it. So it has dexterity, it has uh those
Speaker 1: fine motor skills down and Caman actually got the request
Speaker 1: from DARPA. UM. DARPA said, hey, we want the vets
Speaker 1: to come back and have better technologies available to them. UM,
Speaker 1: and MPG technology really isn't there right now. So Caman
Speaker 1: has been working on this for a while and he
Speaker 1: wound up taking it down to the Walter Reed Military
Speaker 1: Hospital and testing it up. The arm consense pressure and
Speaker 1: temperature and basically the more pneumatic pressure you put on it,
Speaker 1: the more it's attached. Cool. Some of that technology, um,
Speaker 1: you know, was explored in the in the space industry
Speaker 1: for space gloves the big thing because if you know,
Speaker 1: if you have this huge thick layer between yourself and
Speaker 1: say sensitive you know, equipment on a satellite you're trying
Speaker 1: to repair, you know, you know, it's like trying to
Speaker 1: play piano when you know, kitchen mits or something. Yeah. Right,
Speaker 1: So so the idea here is, you know, create gloves
Speaker 1: that can sense those things and can transfer those back
Speaker 1: to the wear right in case you're just sparing. You know,
Speaker 1: it sounds like a lot of these technologies aren't available. Well,
Speaker 1: some of them are actually, um there are a lot
Speaker 1: of companies operating the space, and some of these cutting
Speaker 1: edge prosthetics are already available. So there's one device that
Speaker 1: I read about called pro Digits, and it's made by
Speaker 1: a Scottish company, um by the name of Touch Bionics.
Speaker 1: And this particular device can replace any or all fingers
Speaker 1: on your hand, and it comes with this like tiny
Speaker 1: little motor and a gearbox that's founded at the base
Speaker 1: and they're commercially available. Okay, so here's the thing. Big
Speaker 1: cost sixty dollars to seventy five dollars and that's going
Speaker 1: to include fitting and occupational therapy. My question is, I
Speaker 1: wonder if the Veterans Administration would cover this. I mean,
Speaker 1: how much is that? How much of that cost is
Speaker 1: going to be covered for an amputee? You know, how
Speaker 1: much are we how much is you know the government
Speaker 1: can contribute towards that. Yeah, so it seems like it's
Speaker 1: a little price you still well, but I mean it's
Speaker 1: it's you know it' kind of like a pr thing.
Speaker 1: You know, it's like you're gonna convince people to join
Speaker 1: the army when you know, they see people with missing
Speaker 1: limbs everywhere that if everybody's got really you know, awesome prosthetics,
Speaker 1: it's probably not even gonna be visible. And if you know,
Speaker 1: and if it is visible, you'll say, hey, they really
Speaker 1: take care of those guys after they took one for
Speaker 1: the team. Right, And just to emphasize the motions on
Speaker 1: this particular pro digit device, I mean, you can write
Speaker 1: with it. I read one thing where the guy said
Speaker 1: that his handwriting was in facted better than it was before,
Speaker 1: so he was very pleased with this. All some of
Speaker 1: us have really bad handwriting. So I mean, would you
Speaker 1: include yourself? Yeah? Yeah. One thing I found really interesting
Speaker 1: about about amputees is apparently about half of them, according
Speaker 1: to a two tho article on the US Navy website,
Speaker 1: suffer from um phantomal impain. Right, So this is pain
Speaker 1: that feels like it's coming from a body part that's
Speaker 1: no longer they're according to the Mayo Clinic. And according
Speaker 1: to the clinic, this type of pain was once considered psychological.
Speaker 1: You know, people, I don't know about that. But now
Speaker 1: we figured out that these um sensations originate in the
Speaker 1: spinal cord in the brain. And I read a really
Speaker 1: cool New Yorker article about this a wild back, and
Speaker 1: it was profiling a behavioral neurologist by the name of
Speaker 1: A Villa Yaner Rama Chandron. Apologies to Dr rama Chandron
Speaker 1: if I messed up your name. And he was working
Speaker 1: on this phantom limp pain problem and he came up
Speaker 1: with something called mirror therapy. Oh yeah, I've seen some
Speaker 1: stuff about this. Yeah, right, so we know that phantom
Speaker 1: limpain can be pretty cute, and uh so the neual
Speaker 1: just had this idea to use mirror therapy. And what
Speaker 1: this involves is that you hold up a mirror and
Speaker 1: say you're missing a leg, and you hold up a
Speaker 1: mirror next to your leg, and so it appears as
Speaker 1: if you have two legs. For some reason, this UM
Speaker 1: this helps out with your brain and the pain that
Speaker 1: you're experiencing, and it seems to work, or at least
Speaker 1: it reduces the pain too tolerable levels, and in some
Speaker 1: people it may reduce the pain entirely. That's pretty cool.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's pretty innovative and a really simple therapy
Speaker 1: that could be available to a lot of people. Who
Speaker 1: do you need it? So we talked about phantom limpain.
Speaker 1: I want to talk about something called apo to no ophelia.
Speaker 1: Have you heard of this before today? Yeah? Yeah, this
Speaker 1: is when I've read about a while back. This is
Speaker 1: where you have this uh, this compulsion or even a
Speaker 1: desire to amputate part of your body. Right right. So
Speaker 1: there's a John Hopkins psychologist back in nineteen seven called
Speaker 1: John Money. How awesome is that name? It's funny, especially
Speaker 1: if you know he had a doctoral degree and he
Speaker 1: could call himself doctor Money. Yeah. I never understand when
Speaker 1: people have those weird names, like if like Dennis get
Speaker 1: names like Dr Payne, like you know, I would consider
Speaker 1: changing it. Yeah, yeah, or at least fellow with the way.
Speaker 1: Did you ever see that Seinfeld with the practologist. Yeah?
Speaker 1: What was his name? That's what I'm thinking of right now.
Speaker 1: But anyway, um appa time Nophelia was also called the
Speaker 1: body integrity identity disorder and also ampute identity disorder, and
Speaker 1: it was submitted for inclusion in the d s M five.
Speaker 1: Remember the DSM five. It's like the mental health Bible
Speaker 1: where all the mental health illnesses get classified. Yeah, if
Speaker 1: I remember correctly, this is one that, like some interpretations
Speaker 1: of this, at least with some some people who suffer
Speaker 1: from it, it sometimes stems from being like a really
Speaker 1: high pressure situation where they feel like they need to
Speaker 1: It's almost like you're you're expecting a lot of me,
Speaker 1: but you would expect less of me if I was
Speaker 1: missing a hand before, I have a compulsion to remove
Speaker 1: set a hand. So I was sort of thinking a
Speaker 1: similar to transgender folks, you know, along the lines of
Speaker 1: feeling illinies in your own body, and then once you
Speaker 1: remove a limb, you know, it's sort of you become yourself.
Speaker 1: May you become at peace with yourself? It's I I
Speaker 1: just it kind of blows my mind um to to
Speaker 1: voluntarily seek out in operation where you might I want
Speaker 1: to get rid of a limb. But there's a huge
Speaker 1: black market for it, and of course the Internet has
Speaker 1: a looted all sorts of people seeking these kinds of
Speaker 1: operations too, So it's like a can dude on Craig's List.
Speaker 1: It will come and chop your hand off if you
Speaker 1: well know. Because obviously doctors have some have some legal
Speaker 1: issues with but there was a doctor that I bait about.
Speaker 1: I believe in Scotland he performed to such operations and
Speaker 1: he said that these operations were some of the most
Speaker 1: satisfying he performed in his life because he really feelt
Speaker 1: like he was helping these people to become more comfortable
Speaker 1: with themselves. I mean, I, having never experienced this particularly disorder,
Speaker 1: I can't understand the compulsion, but I believe that it
Speaker 1: must be a very strong compulsion. How could it not be,
Speaker 1: I don't know, I see, I can't imagine how it
Speaker 1: seems like that kind of thing would keep going to
Speaker 1: be kind of like surgical addiction. You know. It's like
Speaker 1: it's people are never happy with anything. You know. It's like,
Speaker 1: you know, somebody gets the you know, an Xbox three sixty,
Speaker 1: they're gonna want to p S three or something. You know.
Speaker 1: It's like so it's like you lose one hand. I mean,
Speaker 1: how is that going to make the person happy? Or
Speaker 1: are they gonna have to lose another hand? Now? I
Speaker 1: don't know. I'm always wanting more. So It's like if
Speaker 1: there's a dude out there that like cutting his hand
Speaker 1: off makes him happy for the rest of his life.
Speaker 1: Like I can't think of anything else in life that
Speaker 1: like does that for anybody? You know, like sheer happiness
Speaker 1: for that one operational. I mean, if it works, then
Speaker 1: God bless him. But I have my doubts. Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: so I'm just saying I'm not going to do it.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to cut my hand off, just in
Speaker 1: case you're wondering. I wasn't. Well, because you need him
Speaker 1: for typing all of this, I do. Yeah, but of
Speaker 1: course you could. You could type with your new prosthetic device.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I'm thing to be like a hunting packs.
Speaker 1: It would just be like one finger you hunting packed.
Speaker 1: Oh lord, that's so slow, I wandered producer Jerry huntson
Speaker 1: Packs producer Jerry. Oh, producer, Jerry, you said pretty Sue, Jerry,
Speaker 1: Like pretty ser Jerry, You've just forgotten about it because
Speaker 1: we can't see her anymore. It still sounds like you said,
Speaker 1: it's the new headphones. I'm hearing pretty Sue Jerry. Well,
Speaker 1: it sounds kind of like a pimp or something, you know. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so listen, if you're not going to get a prosthetic limb,
Speaker 1: you could always get a hand transplant. Would you be
Speaker 1: interested in one of these? Um? Yeah, I was missing
Speaker 1: a hand and someone was like, we can give you
Speaker 1: another hand. Then I would what would you choose, Which
Speaker 1: would you choose fetic in a real hand, My current
Speaker 1: self would choose a real hand, my like ten year
Speaker 1: old self, which is like a robotic hand with lasers.
Speaker 1: So you might be interested to know a little bit
Speaker 1: about the current state of hand transplants. And I learned
Speaker 1: about them courtesy of Emory Healthcare, which is here in Atlanta.
Speaker 1: So the technical name is composite tissue allow transplantation, and
Speaker 1: that just means the transplantation of limbs and other intact
Speaker 1: body parts. And this is a really complicated process, right,
Speaker 1: because there's a lot of stuff to reattach right right,
Speaker 1: I mean you're talking about bits of bone that may
Speaker 1: have been shattered. You're talking about connective tissue that's not
Speaker 1: in good shape. Maybe it's kind of mangled. Um, So
Speaker 1: it's yeah, it is extremely complicated, and it can be
Speaker 1: a really long surgery. And then perhaps you may have
Speaker 1: to deal with immunosuppressive issues, and so you're gonna be
Speaker 1: on immuno suppressive medication. I shouldn't say perhaps you will
Speaker 1: be on immuno suppressive medication. Yeah, the first hand transplant
Speaker 1: was performed back in nine in Ecuador, again to a sailor.
Speaker 1: Sailor got the transplant and you had to have it
Speaker 1: amputated two weeks after surgery because you know, his his
Speaker 1: body rejected it. And then the next hand transplant was
Speaker 1: performed in France in n And I'm wondering a little
Speaker 1: bit from this research if France isn't kind of interested
Speaker 1: in this whole transplant sphere because they were also the
Speaker 1: folks who did the face transplant. Member. Yeah. Yeah, they're
Speaker 1: making they're making leaps and bounds over there. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's it's all I think, just awesome. I mean, I
Speaker 1: just love the idea that, you know, someone if they
Speaker 1: lose something like that, they would be able to get
Speaker 1: it back or at least get you know, something back
Speaker 1: that's made of flesh and not plastic, right, right, although
Speaker 1: there are some good plastic options out there, totally right. So, um,
Speaker 1: a couple of other interesting transplants that have occurred. There
Speaker 1: was a uterus transplant, yeah, a couple of transplants involving knees,
Speaker 1: and there was one that even involved a trichia. Yeah. Yeah, Well,
Speaker 1: I have an interesting prosthetic You may remember this, but
Speaker 1: an Ignoble Prize was awarded to an effort to create
Speaker 1: prosthetic testicles for dogs. I forgot about that, right, so
Speaker 1: they could be imbued with ERA. Yeah, which again this
Speaker 1: is like back to the whole thing that dogs are
Speaker 1: fine if they lose a leg, and if you can
Speaker 1: get a dog neuter like you should, um, then dog's
Speaker 1: gonna be all right, you know, Dog's not you know,
Speaker 1: this is all the owner like thinking, oh, my dog
Speaker 1: doesn't have testicles? How can I live with this? You know?
Speaker 1: And and that's why I want an Ignoble Prize because
Speaker 1: it's just like why why are you even wondering? Why
Speaker 1: are you even coming up with this? You know, Well,
Speaker 1: surely if they can have kitty wigs, they can have
Speaker 1: a set of fake a dog. And if a Ford
Speaker 1: truck can have them, then certainly the genuine articles should
Speaker 1: be able to come back as well, right right, So
Speaker 1: I think that about raps it up for deep dive
Speaker 1: into prosthetic devices today, and we hope you've got an interesting,
Speaker 1: not as deep a dive as you can get on
Speaker 1: the website. Be sure to check out our article about
Speaker 1: prosthetic limbs and actually we have a we have a
Speaker 1: few other articles to just just put in, like prosthetic limbs,
Speaker 1: and you'll get a couple of different things on the
Speaker 1: house Stuff Works website about this kind of technology. Yeah yeah,
Speaker 1: so listener Millan want to share today, all right, So
Speaker 1: I gotta get an email from Eric, and Eric was
Speaker 1: writing about the business of compost and yeah, we that
Speaker 1: compost podcast got a lot of confess Yeah. Yeah, it
Speaker 1: seems like a lot of a lot of composting folks
Speaker 1: out there, so that's cool. Eric writes, you mentioned in
Speaker 1: your compost episode that you shouldn't compost your own business
Speaker 1: and businesses and quotes, and by business we mean business. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so well this is true for Pooh, it's worth noting
Speaker 1: that urine is actually a great additive for composts. So
Speaker 1: he goes on to expol the benefits of all that nitrogen,
Speaker 1: and he writes, it's probably easier for the gentleman composters
Speaker 1: out there to p into the compost than it is
Speaker 1: for the ladies, and of course you need a certain
Speaker 1: amount of privacy in your ear to make it happen.
Speaker 1: Good point, Eric, and your neighbors will also probably be
Speaker 1: happier if you don't vail your secret compost ingredient when
Speaker 1: you start sharing the produce from your veggie garden. Indeed,
Speaker 1: and lastly, Eric says, however, you may want to avoid
Speaker 1: this technique if you're composting in the kitchen. Again, good point, Eric.
Speaker 1: We thank you for that and your insight into the
Speaker 1: the com posting matter. And we also had a good
Speaker 1: one from Arizona Andrew in Arizona, Andrew writes that he
Speaker 1: works for caterine company and he has a ton of
Speaker 1: food that would otherwise be thrown in the trash. Now
Speaker 1: I take it home and make a lovely, lovely soil
Speaker 1: from it. And he also attached a picture of his
Speaker 1: seven year ards on Brady, which I thought so adorable. Photos.
Speaker 1: Yeah uh. And he writes, thanks for podcast. The kids
Speaker 1: and I love listening. Well, we love you writing, so
Speaker 1: thanks Andrew. In one last correction from Gary, we can
Speaker 1: just call him Galaxy Gary, because Gary writes that I
Speaker 1: want to remind you that the galaxy is the large
Speaker 1: is not the largest structure in the universe. Uh. In fact,
Speaker 1: galaxies are part of galaxy clusters, which are made up
Speaker 1: of many galaxies that are gravitationally related to one another.
Speaker 1: Thank you Gary, and we we discussed galaxies and galaxy
Speaker 1: clusters in our podcast about how Galaxies Are World and
Speaker 1: of course we're all over them on Facebook and Twitter. Two.
Speaker 1: You can find us on Facebook on stuff in the
Speaker 1: Science Lab or our handle on Twitter is the lab stuff. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So come check us out and if you have any
Speaker 1: stories you want to share, the prosthetics or anything else,
Speaker 1: send us an email at science stuff at how stuff
Speaker 1: works dot com for more on this and thousands of
Speaker 1: other topics because it how stuff works dot com. Want
Speaker 1: more how stuff works, check out our blogs on the
Speaker 1: house stuff works dot com home page