Crabtree Company Publishing HIGH-TECH BODY SCIENCE MEGAN KOPP BIONIC BODIES
AMAZING NEW BODIES The human body is amazing It functions like a computer with our brain sending messages to different body parts allowing us to move and speak However just like a computer things can go wrong with the human body A part such as an arm or heart can become damaged or weak That’s where scientists step in New technologies have made it possible to repair and rebuild the human body and even make it stronger than it was before In the 1970s a television show called The Six Million Dollar Man was a smash hit In the show astronaut Steve Austin was badly injured when his experimental aircraft crashed His body was rebuilt with mechanical parts that gave him superhuman powers Many comic books movies and television shows have created characters like Steve Austin who develop extraordinary abilities through the use of technology These stories have always been science fiction or imaginary tales of future scientific possibilities However something called bionics is quickly turning science fiction into reality Technology is pushing the start button for bionic body solutions Bionics is a science that uses technology to create new working parts for living things Bio means life The ending onics comes from electronics The term bionics was first used in 1958 the same year the first pacemaker was put inside a human patient 4 BETTER THAN BEFORE UNDERSTANDING BIONICS
However most of today’s bionic bodies are not superhuman like Steve Austin’s Bionics simply allows people who need help to live better lives Bionics can help a child who has lost an arm play catch or a person who has gone blind to see shapes again The science of bionics includes advances in almost all parts of the human body both inside and out Bionic body parts can replace everything from arms and legs to eyes and ears to hearts and knee joints The way bionic body parts look and work is becoming more and more lifelike The world of bionics is changing all the time with constant advancements in technology such as robotics Bionic bodies are no longer science fiction They are here and now Iron Man is a comic book hero He may not be real but the technology behind him is quickly becoming a reality 5
