"A robot suit that can help the elderly or disabled get around was given its global safety certificate in Japan on Wednesday, paving the way for its worldwide rollout."

"An experimental device allowed the rats to "touch" infrared light - which is normally invisible to them."

"Half a world away from the battlefield, a soldier controls his avatar-robot that does the actual fighting on the ground. Another one wears a sticky fabric that enables her to climb a wall like a gecko or spider would. Returning from a traumatic mission, a pilot takes a memory-erasing drug to help ward off post-traumatic stress disorder. Mimicking the physiology of dolphins and sled-dogs, a sailor is able to work his post all week without sleep and only a few meals. All of these scenarios are real military projects currently in various stages of research...."

"When Amy Purdy talks about her leg extensions on TED, she slowly weaves in the pain and loss of her legs, which somehow justifies to the audience the new longer, beautiful designer legs. We still apply the century old principle of no pain, no gain -even with technology. There is always a sacrifice for the enhancements. Imagine if someone had to saw off their own legs in order to obtain the beautiful, height-extending legs that Purdy has?"

@justinpickard: Gutted to miss this. 'Computing, Philosophy and the Question of Bio-Machine Hybrids': http://t.co/xsiPon2K (July 2-6; Birmingham, UK) http://twitter.com/justinpickard/status/211546689146851328

"This mystery mechanism of human transformation is neuronal recycling, coined by neuroscientist Stanislas Dehaene, wherein the brain’s innate capabilities are harnessed for altogether novel functions."

"Neil Harbisson introduces himself as the first cyborg ever legally recognized by any Government (2004). He was born colour-blind; so he can only see in black and white (Achromatopsia disorder). An electronic device implanted in his neck allows him to translate colours into sounds. The camera that hangs from his forehead 24/7 was accepted as part of his British passport photo. By that very fact, the camera became congenital and not prosthetic to his body anymore. Thanks to it, light frequencies are captured and translated into sound frequencies by the chip, which in turn sends them to his brain. He literally listens to colours with his electronic eye. A standard eye perceives light, tone and saturation. Harbisson’s organic eyes perceive light, but tone is converted into sound, and saturation into volume through his third eye."

"Vikings worldwide seem to have taken up a fashion for painful but impressive modification of teeth around the 10th century AD"

"a prosthetic chip that uses electrodes to enhance and expand their memory abilities. The chip is capable of storing neural signals, basically functioning as an electronic memory"

"Could electronic components made from human blood be the key to creating cyborg interfaces? Circuitry that links human tissues and nerve cells directly to an electronic device, such as a robotic limb or artificial eye might one day be possible thanks to the development of biological components."