Science Fiction to Science Fact: Bionic Limbs

Description

This series explores the real-life science behind some of our favourite science fiction gadgets and shows how a future filled with space shuttles, solar sails and bionic limbs might be closer than you think!

Do you lose yourself in daydreams about invisibility cloaks, tractor beams and replicators? Do you wish that you could have been born a few hundred years later, when all of these things are a reality?

Cyborgs, heroes with missing hands, and prosthetics that allow sight in the blind are just some of the unbelievable plot points in science fiction that began years ago. Today, much of this technology exists. Those without legs can be fitted with bionic limbs so well made they can run marathons. Readers learn the history of bionic limbs in science fiction and popular culture and connect it to the real, amazing science of today. Full of interesting STEM content, each chapter engages readers with the ideas behind, execution, and future of this technology.

Table of Contents

1. What is bionics?
2. Bionics: the fantasy
3. Bionic limbs: movement and feeling
4. Mind-controlled bionic limbs
5. Touching bionics
6. Bionic skin
7. Bionic senses
8. The human and the machine
9. Bionic brains
10. Bionics: the future
11. Due an upgrade?
12. Glossary
13. Index