I Know You’re In There!

The many challenges of filming polar bears… *sigh*….

Re-post from BBC: Bionic Feet for Amputee Cat

I got such a kick out of the video, I thought I’d share:

Original link here

A cat that had its back feet severed by a combine harvester has been given two prosthetic limbs in a pioneering operation by a UK vet.

The new feet are custom-made implants that “peg” the ankle to the foot. They are bioengineered to mimic the way deer antler bone grows through the skin.

The operation – a world first – was carried out by Noel Fitzpatrick, a veterinary surgeon based in Surrey.

His work is explored in a BBC documentary called The Bionic Vet.

The cat, named Oscar, was referred to Mr Fitzpatrick by his local vet in Jersey, following the accident last October. Oscar was struck by the combine harvester whilst dozing in the sun.

The prosthetic pegs, called intraosseous transcutaneous amputation prosthetics (Itaps) were developed by a team from University College London led by Professor Gordon Blunn, who is head of UCL’s Centre for Biomedical Engineering.

Professor Blunn and his team have worked in partnership with Mr Fitzpatrick to develop these weight-bearing implants, combining engineering mechanics with biology.

Mr Fitzpatrick explained: “The real revolution with Oscar is [that] we have put a piece of metal and a flange into which skin grows into an extremely tight bone.”

“We have managed to get the bone and skin to grow into the implant and we have developed an ‘exoprosthesis’ that allows this implant to work as a see-saw on the bottom of an animal’s limbs to give him effectively normal gait.”

Professor Blunn told BBC News the idea was initially developed for patients with amputations who have a “stump socket”.

“This means they fix their artifical limb with a sock, which fits over the stump. In a lot of cases this is sucessful, but you [often] get rubbing and pressure sores.”

The Itap technology is being tested in humans and has already been used to create a prosthetic for a woman who lost her arm in the July 2005 London bombings.

“The intriguing thing with Oscar was that he had two implants – one in each back leg, and in quite an unusual site,” Professor Blunn told BBC News.

He said that the success of this operation showed the potential of the technology.

“Noel has some brilliant ideas,” he added. “And we’re continuing to work closely with him to develop new technologies.”

The Bionic Vet is on BBC 1 at 2245 BST on Wednesday

Secret World of the Giant Manta Ray

The associated article can be accessed here, with many more photos.

These photos apparently are a result of film footage taken for a BBC Documentary on Manta Rays: Andrea: Queen of the Mantas

The Andrea in question is biologist Andrea Marshall. Apparently, until recently, it was thought there was a single species of manta ray. She noticed discrepancies in the markings and behaviors of some individuals and was able to describe a new species of manta, Manta alfredi.

Epic Humpback Whale Battle Filmed

Here is the video containing said footage for the BBC “Life” series, narrated by David Attenborough (one of my favorite people, really):

I’ll let the BBC news article do the excellent job og explaning this:

It is the greatest animal battle on the planet, and it has finally been caught on camera.

A BBC natural history crew has filmed the “humpback whale heat run”, where 15m long, 40 tonne male whales fight it out to mate with even larger females.

During the first complete sequence of this behaviour ever captured, the male humpbacks swim at high speed behind the female, violently jostling for access.

The collisions between the males can be violent enough to kill.

The footage was recorded for the BBC natural history series Life.

“Even though this is one of the most common of the large whales, very little is known about its actual sexual behaviour,” says Life producer Dr Ted Oakes.

“One of the most interesting things is that humpbacks have never been seen to mate.”

But what has been filmed is the epic battle between males to get mating access to the female whales.

Up to 40 males swim behind a single female at speeds of up to ten knots, each jostling to obtain a dominant position.

“It’s the closest we’re ever going to get to dinosaurs fighting. It’s the largest battle in the animal kingdom and it feels like something out of Jurassic Park,” says Dr Oakes.

 

Eddie Izzard… is a marathon runner?

This is pretty darn amazing.

For those of who who have missed the off-kilter, astute humor of Eddie Izzard, I do pity you a bit. But with the miracle of you-tube you can now figure out what you’re missing (or you could always legitimately buy the dvds…):

At any rate, he was a sort of hidden gem whilst I was in college, but he now is a much more visible entity in movies and television. Turns out he decided to do something rather crazy and admirable. He is running 43 marathons in 51 days to run money for the charity Sport Relief, which is essentially tied to Comic Relief who uses the money for the disadvantaged in the UK as well as the world’s poorest countries.

The BBC News article can be accessed here:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8256589.stm

Go Eddie, Go!