Sorry to pop the bubble here, but as a "World First" this has already been done, as far back as 2000 [Dr. William Dobelle]. There are many institutions working on this approach to making a prosthetic ocular device.

This one's approach is called a Retinal Implant, but the Dobelle approach (and many others) use a direct Neural Implant (complete with head-socket). They tested the implants/sockets on 9 individuals since the early 1980's and found little to no infection or contra-indications. It afforded a vision of 20/200 in the initial trials and improved up to 20/80 in the later trials. This later approach requires an external camera (likely mounted to a pair of glasses). I believe you can still get this operation done in Portugal.

The former approach of Retinal Implant (JUST like they show here) has been functioning by the Argus Group (USC & John Hopkins) since 2002 and is already approved by the FDA for a second generation trial of 60 individuals.

What puzzles me is why we hear so little about these amazing breakthroughs (years after the fact) and are instead so "up" on 'popular' news to the minute.

OMFG, 33.3% grade. NIIICE!

Can we put this in *engineering... you know, Force, Opposite Equal force, lack of that in the handbrake...

LMFAHS, "well known industry egg tests"

They're so *happy.

"I'm drifting and washing my hair - it's a world first" - alsome.

^ Too X-rated.. just look what they were doing in the late 20s http://www.videosift.com/video/Worlds-first-pornographic-cartoon-Ever-Ready-Horton

>> ^schmawy:
The scene where they unclamp the large artery and the skin turns from flacid, dead looking discolored flesh into rosy, vital tissue is truly remarkable. I've done some plumbing, and the satisfaction I feel when I turn the water back on and don't have any drips is great, I can't imagine the satisfaction of the surgeons upon completing this procedure.


I'm sure after 15 hours of surgery the sentiment was: "She's lucky that worked cause I was not about to redo that"

Most recent update I could find on this incredible story.

>> ^schmawy:
Yeah, I can hear it now. "You look familiar".

When this surgery took place I remember them saying that the the new face wouldn't look exactly like the donor's, mainly because the recipient's facial bone structure would change the shape of the donor tissue.

One of the worlds first great studio bands. And it shows.

BlueGW, when you start talking human rights, you step a bit away from the specific issue of immigration, but this sentence demands response:

"Why do we defend and fight for the human rights of terrorists at GITMO who murder innocent people of all faiths and ethnic groups around the world?"

First of all, how dare you conflate immigrants with terrorists. What an obvious and pernicious strawman that is. But to answer your question, we care about immigrants' rights because we're good, honest, reasonable people who themselves make up a nation descended from immigrants. We care about the detainees because humans have rights by virtue of being human, as our Constitution, Bill of Rights, multiple treaties, and our collective sense of decency all affirm, citizen or no. Because the callous deprivation of human rights is evil, no matter the justification.

Most of all because we're just f_cking better than that. If we're to be worth defending, we must uphold the values that make us what we are. You advocate throwing that away. You would make us no better than the enemy you so disdain.

Shame on you.

PS- Farhad, that was a Ben Franklin quote, but no matter how often I see it, I must salute the wisdom in those words.

I think this is a clip of the original (UK dub) of The World's First Time Machine.

I think this will do better than last time.

i don't believe the footage is from String Theory (here on the Sift) - not as far as I can remember anyway...I think some of it (the taxi part) maybe from my discarded The Worlds First Time Machine Sift too.

http://www.techeblog.com/index.php/tech-gadget/worlds-first-battery-powered-plane