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Injured soldiers and people with disabilities might one day benefit from a hydraulic hand that doubles finger strength. Scientists at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory say a "mesofluidic" hand could be used to remotely disarm explosives and manipulate IEDs.

Mesofluidics is the study of applying pea-size hydraulics to applications requiring significant power in a limited space.

An artist's rendering of a mesofluidic "glove."

(Credit: Oak Ridge National Laboratory)

So far, the team at the Tennessee laboratory has developed an artificial finger made up of 25 moving parts. It can deliver 20 pounds of pinch force, about double that of a human finger, while remaining lightweight and rugged.

Key innovations were a small, 200 psi hydraulic pump that produces about 30 watts of hydraulic power, as well as miniature high-performance valves that control motion.

The next stage in development is a full hydraulic hand. It could have prosthetic applications similar to DARPA's Revolutionizing Prosthetics Program--described in this "60 Minutes" video--which aims to create an artificial arm with full motor and sensory functions.

Prosthetic technology hasn't advanced much in decades, but current wars and new technologies are changing that. Prosthetics maker OrthoCare Innovations is working with the Oak Ridge team to use mesofluidics for boosting strength in weakened elbows and knees.

But a more intriguing use would be telerobotics. Though robots have been developed for mine detection and disposal, the hydraulic hand could have unparalleled dexterity as a remote-controlled device.

The Oak Ridge scientists are designing a glove with a mesofluidic exoskeleton that will be linked to a remote hydraulic hand with force feedback. Users would be able to roughly feel what the remote hand is manipulating.

That might save some lives--and prevent some expensive robots from getting blown up.

Motala walks on her new leg over the weekend.

(Credit: Friends of the Asian Elephant)

One of the best things about this job is getting to share stories that are often totally friggin' awesome. This is one of those stories.

It doesn't start happily, though. Motala is a 48-year old former working elephant from Thailand (she moved large trees for a living). In 1999, while wandering in the forest looking for food on her lunch break, she accidentally stepped on a land mine left over from the Burmese-Thai war. The mine destroyed her left front foot and most of the leg.

Though her owners tried to save the leg, it was eventually amputated below the knee. In 2006, she got a temporary prothesis to help her learn to walk on what would be a more permanent artificial leg.

This week, Motala was fitted for that leg in Thailand, according to the conservation group Friends of the Asian Elephant. It's a state-of-the-art upgrade to the temporary prothesis she's had for the last three years. Early reports show she's taking to it well, which is fantastic (watch the video after the jump). Here's hoping Motala lives a normal, long life in her retirement.

(Credit: Jerry Jalava)

This is a story about Jerry Jalava, a Finnish software developer who lost part of his finger in a motorcycle accident last July. According to his friend, Henri Bergius, when the surgeon assigned to work on Jalava's prosthetic finger discovered his hacking history, he made a clever suggestion: incorporate a USB key into the new digit.

The prosthetic finger contains a 2GB USB key, and Jalava also loaded it with Billix distribution, CouchDBX, and Ajatus to run off the drive, throwing even more geek cred into the mix.

When Jalava needs the drive, he simply pulls it off his left hand, plugs it in, and comes back to pick it up after the transfers are finished. That dispels any parallels to that scene in "Robocop" when he uses the giant spike that comes out of his hand to transfer data from the OCP criminal database to the computer in his head.

Check out more pictures of Jalava's cybernetic finger in the slideshow below, and be sure to listen to Thursday's episode of The 404 Podcast to hear 30 jokes in a row about what would happen if this were to go on another part of the body.

Jerry Jalava's USB key prosthetic finger

Nadya Vessey's prosthetic tail is mostly constructed from wetsuit fabric and plastic molds, and covered in a digitally printed sock.

(Credit: stuff.co.nz)

Good: double amputee gets prosthetic legs so she can walk. Better: double amputee gets realistic-looking mermaid tail so she can swim. Awesome: it's developed and built by Weta, the special-effects company that did work for the "Lord of the Rings" movies, as well as "King Kong" and "The Chronicles of Narnia" series.

Nadya Vessey's legs were amputated below the knee when she was a child due to illness. At one point, reports Stuff, a child asked her what happened to her legs and she told him she was a mermaid. The idea stuck with her, so she wrote to Weta Workshop in Wellington, New Zealand, two years ago asking for a mermaid tail. To her surprise, they said they'd do it.

Now she has a fully functional mermaid tail with an attached suit, making her look practically just like a real mermaid (if, you know, mermaids were real).

She can swim well and says the prosthesis feels quite comfortable. We're not sure if anything like this could go into mass production for amputees, but we wouldn't be surprised if 10 years from now there are mermaids swimming about in your local pool.

Scientists at Vanderbilt University have adapted a miniaturized rocket motor from space to power a stronger, faster prosthetic arm here on Earth.

Actually, the power is generated by what amounts to an advanced steam engine. It contains hydrogen peroxide and a catalyst that causes it to burn at 450 fahrenheit, producing steam. NASA uses the same principle to scoot the space shuttle around in orbit.

(Credit: Vanderbilt University)

It's "roughly the size of a pencil" and provides enough energy to operate the prosthetic for up to 18 hours. The prototype arm also weighs less because the motor eliminates the need for heavy batteries, a drawback for most models now available.

The arm's wrist can twist and bend naturally, while its fingers and thumb open and close independently--giving it an "arm up" on conventional "clawed" prosthetics, the Vanderbilt team says. It can also curl up to 25 pounds and is four times faster than other arms on the market, according to preliminary testing.

The steam operates a series of valves that are connected to the spring-loaded arm joints by monofilament belts. Fine tuning has eliminated the clicking and hissing, but the steam generated still causes it to drip. That's no problem--the moisture generated is roughly the same amount that a human arm would sweat naturally on a warm day, according to Vanderbilt Professor of Mechanical Engineering Michael Goldfarb. The bad news is that it won't be available for a couple of years, and even that schedule is still contingent on funding and FDA approval.

The project is part of a $30 million Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) program to develop advanced prosthetic devices. Two other universities are also competing. Watch Vanderbilt's cool videos here.

They're no Lee Majors, but thanks to groundbreaking work in prosthetics, some people with missing limbs are becoming (at least partially) bionic. Earlier today, sister site CNET News.com took a look at two devices that are helping get amputees back on their feet and into the kitchen, office, and even the shooting range.

Patient uses i-Limb Hand to peel a banana.

(Credit: Touch Bionics)

Yesterday, Scottish company Touch Bionics announced its i-Limb Hand, which ushers in the next generation of prosthetic hands. The i-Limb Hand uses individual motors in each finger, so people wearing it can move fingers independently of each other. It's also got pressure sensitivity, so the hand will use a different amount of pressure when picking up a copy of the OED than it would for a Styrofoam cup, which is good news for the more delicate objects lying around the house. It's controlled in much the same way as a normal hand is--with slight variations for some tasks--with the hand responding to the same muscle movements that a normal hand would.

Updated C-Leg goes for a jog

(Credit: Fred W. Baker III)

At $18,000, it ain't cheap. But it is pretty freakin' cool. Check out our photo gallery here to learn more about how it works, and to see it in action, peeling a banana and making hand gestures--no, not that hand gesture.

We also got word of an updated version of the C-Leg, a high-tech prosthetic leg that people are testing out at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, DC. The new C-Leg is still a prototype, but it's being designed to improve the ability to make turns and walk backward. Researchers are also working on getting the leg's battery life up to 50 hours after a single charge, with the goal of getting soldiers who choose to do so back into the field.

Check out our photo gallery of the new C-Leg as it's being taken for a spin and how researchers in a special lab study their every move to speed recoveries.