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				Born Again Nerves Scientists train newborn nerve cells to repair spinal cord injuries.
		Select text to jump ahead in the clip: at a challenge that just a few years ago most scientists would have said is simply beyond our reach. The challenge is to repair broken or damaged nerves particularly in people who have suffered a disabling accident which has left them paralyzed. There's now real progress being made in stimulating nerves to repair themselves although it's still at the lab level and a long way from being applied to people. Then we're going to look at a different kind of approach to the same problem. This is a true marriage of biology and technology in which actual hardware is being implanted in the body to restore functions that no longer work. MAN: Go ahead and stand up. ALDA: Nerves are being replaced with computers and wires. So there's some terrific science going on in these areas but we're not going to lose sight of the fact that this is all for one thing: to help the people who need it. Later on in the program I'm going to be talking with Christopher Reeve who, since his accident, has become an important advocate on behalf of disabled patients. But first we're putting on our white coats and heading into the laboratory. And in the laboratory we find laboratory rats. But what a rat! This one had a crippling spinal cord injury and it's literally back on its feet. This story is about how that was done. I'm with John McDonald, a neurology professor at Washington University in St. Louis. What we're going to look at is an actual transplantation procedure where we're going to take the embryonic stem cells that have been instructed to become nervous tissue, and we're going to put those into the middle of the damaged spinal cord of a rat. ALDA: Repairing damaged nerves is one of the possibilities opened up by an exciting new area of research using embryonic stem cells. ALDA: You have stem cells in here? Yes. Let me show you how we grow the stem cells. What we're looking at here if you look closely... ALDA: Oh, yeah. You can see small clusters of hundreds of cells. In fact, each one of those very closely resembles the early embryo after fertilization. ALDA: The cells have not yet started to differentiate into everything that goes to make, in this case, a mouse like bones, muscles or nerves. ALDA: What kind of stuff tells them to become nervous tissue and how does it work? I don't get... that's an amazing idea. What kind of stuff is it? It's very interesting. In the early embryo, the switches-- the major switches-- are very simple things. And the expression of a chemical called retinoic acid is all that it takes to tell these cells to become nervous tissue. And you synthesize that? You can make retinoic acid, as much as you want? Exactly. And you just squirt it around on that stuff and they start to turn into nervous tissue? Yes. ALDA: The embryos are treated with retinoic acid for four days. Then an inhibiting chemical is used to stop them from developing further while they multiply. McDONALD: If we begin the week with one of these flasks, we end the week with 256. So it's really an unlimited supply. The cells divide almost every 14 hours. So let's take a look at these. ALDA: At this stage, they're called neural precursor cells. They're ready to make any of the three kinds of nerve cells but while the inhibiting chemical is present they just multiply as precursors. What we're seeing here are one individual cell that's now just finishing division. The two dark areas are the DNA. And the cell will cleave across here. ALDA: A single transplant needs a couple of million cells so there's a continuous precursor cell production line running in the lab. Then when the inhibiting chemical is removed the nerve cells themselves grow. These are neurons, with their connecting axons. McDONALD: What we're looking at here is a culture dish filled with cells that have now become neurons. You can see the little round circle is a neuron, a cell body. Uh-huh. And that coming out of it-- is that an axon? This is the axon. There are millions and millions of the axons and connections-- those same ones that need to be repaired. ALDA: Here's another kind of nerve cell, called an oligodendrocyte. Its job is to wrap the axons with insulation. McDONALD: What's showing here in green is a single oligodendrocyte in the culture. And these are all the branches. And you can see that this oligodendrocyte reaches out and wraps only one part of that axon and then it continues, unwrapped. Here's another connection that's wrapped multiple times in multiple segments. So this one oligodendrocyte is wrapping many different axons or connections. That's right. Typically in the spinal cord, an oligodendrocyte will wrap up to 15 different axons, or connections between cells. ALDA: Here's an axon wrapped with its new layers of insulation like a plastic cover on a copper wire. Damaging the insulation is an important type of spinal cord injury in people as with this injured cord of a lab animal. The cord is not severed but there's a serious loss of function mainly because existing axons have lost their insulation. By transplanting about two million nerve precursor cells into the injury an astonishing recovery of function has been achieved. The researchers think the animals' bodies signal the transplanted cells to make oligodendrocytes, which rewrap the exposed axons with the insulation called myelin that they need to work again. ALDA: So, nerves that don't work anymore simply because they've lost their myelin-- you can get them to work again. Right-- if we can just simply replace that then we can get important recovery of function such as recovering bowel and bladder control or improved movement of a hand. Now, to you and I, that might not sound like a lot... Oh, it's gigantic if you're missing that. Exactly. The gains in the level of independence for a person to be able to control their own bowel and bladder function or now to use a hand are the difference between living in an institution and living at home. You know, if I was trying to figure out how to do this I'd say, well, get some cells and stick them in there. You know, get some fully grown cells and stick them in. You... you put them in at the right stage so they'll respond to signals and actually grow on their own and grow into the necessary kinds of cells. Yeah, I think we've taken advantage of the power of development and said, "Jeez, you know "we don't know the myriad of signals. "Let's put them in at an early stage "where we can just throw a few switches "and get them going and let the body and the nervous system do the rest. " ALDA: Remyelination of existing axons using stem cell transplants is a tremendous breakthrough. But for a complete cure, new axons need to grow as well so as to reconnect severed nerves. ALDA: How do they know where to go? How do they know where to grow to? Why don't they just grow in every direction? That's the most difficult question now. It's interesting that if you put in cells they'll tend to migrate towards the injury site because the injury site gives signals to get them to go there. The most difficult thing right now is to get these neurons to make the appropriate connections over long distances. That has not been achieved yet. ALDA: Several hundred thousand Americans could benefit from spinal cord therapy and the pace of research is quickening. Encouraged by Christopher Reeve, eight centers around the world have formed a consortium to swap ideas and results. Everyone is feeling optimistic but here at the University of Miami, a consortium member Mary Bunge doesn't underestimate the challenges ahead. BUNGE: There are many different types of nerve cells. There are millions of fibers in the spinal cord. They are traveling in two different directions. They are ending in different areas of the spinal cord. It's a very complex problem. ALDA: Here they're developing a completely different transplant approach using not stem cells but what are called Schwann cells from peripheral nerves-- the ones found in arms and legs. Unlike spinal cords, peripheral nerves can repair themselves. The Schwann cells are cultured and then soaked up into little plastic fiber cylinders. The cylinders are used to take on the biggest challenge of all-- to make a living bridge between completely severed parts of a spinal cord. A section of cylinder containing about six million Schwann cells is placed across the gap in this lab animal test. The extraordinary result is that new axons-- nerve fibers-- are attracted to grow into the bridge. There the transplanted Schwann cells wrap the new axons with the vital myelin. Once again, the body has been coaxed into doing its own thing. The Schwann cells manage to give the right signals for new axons to grow and then make new myelin as well even though repair doesn't normally happen in the spinal cord. BUNGE: One, two, three, four, five, six. What has happened here is that the fibers grew into the bridge and then the Schwann cells that had been transplanted there then formed myelin around the axon. This is the outline of the Schwann cell here. Here is its nucleus. The Schwann cell became related to this axon. The myelin sheath appears as a dark ring. ALDA: They can get new nerves to grow into the bridge but not out again. BUNGE: A challenge now is to improve the amount of growth of axons from the bridge into the cord. ALDA: The latest approach is to take cells from the nose-- the nose of a lab animal again. In all mammals the nose constantly renews its nerve connections to the brain so the nose cells are injected into the spinal cord close to the bridge. The hope is that the nose nerve cells will somehow attract the new nerves out of the bridge so they can make new connections in the spinal cord. And that's in part what the nose cells did with new axons showing up an inch away from each end of the bridge. But right now, we don't know if there were new connections and disappointingly there was no significant improvement in the experimental animals' function. So, what does all this add up to for people? There's no doubt that practical treatments for injured spinal cords are still years away. But at the same time you won't find a scientist in the field who'll say we're not going to win this battle before long. ALDA: I've come to see Christopher Reeve

				I Might Walk! Christopher Reeve talks with Alan Alda about his 'realistic optimism' that he may walk again.
		Select text to jump ahead in the clip: at his house not far from New York City. It used to be woods. ALDA: Chris is now quadriplegic and confined to a wheelchair. He breathes with the aid of a ventilator. In 1995, Chris suffered a severe fall from his horse during a competitive jumping event in Culpeper, Virginia. With an injury at what's called the C-2 level he lost control of his body below the neck. REEVE: I was injured at the second vertebrae level but my spinal cord was not cut. What happened was I had a hemorrhage right in the middle of the cord at C-2. And then it caused atrophy. So right at C-2 the cord is one-quarter of its normal size. So think of it as a kinked garden hose. ALDA: Chris Reeve, seen here with his wife, Dana, and son Will prepared for a lifetime of paralysis. But soon he was to discover that for the first time, there was hope that science could tackle spinal cord injuries. ALDA: Were you encouraged to have this kind of hope when you first had the accident when you, say, were in rehab? Or were you encouraged to accept and adjust to, uh...? No, at first I was encouraged to accept and adjust. And in fact, I remember one researcher saying that, uh, "Well, in the beginning, one always hopes but over time, hope ebbs. " You know, and this is a researcher who now is at the forefront of the solution to the problem. Now we're at a stage where leaders in the field have discovered that exercise is absolutely essential. Now, for what? Exercise is essential to get you ready for the time when your nerves may be able to be regenerated? Or just in general, just...? Well, there's of course just immediate benefit in that you avoid infections, antibiotics, et cetera. And the other is think of it as the transcontinental railroad-- that the patient starts on the East Coast by doing his exercise and improving and heading west while the scientists start from the west and go from the Petri dish to the monkey or the rat and then into the human and hopefully they meet in the same place, in Utah or wherever. ALDA: Chris exercises three to four hours a day using specialized equipment-- equipment he wants insurance companies to provide for all patients, by the way. There's a bicycle used in conjunction with electrical muscle stimulation and a table that tilts upright. REEVE: We loosen the straps and somebody stands in front of me so that I don't fall over-- but actually I have good equilibrium-- and what we do is I mentally think, "Lean to the right" and my body does it. Wow. And then I mentally think "Lean to the left" and I go left and put all my weight on my left foot. And that is something where the brain is telling the cord to shift weight. ALDA: Work on a treadmill is intended to stimulate the spinal cord's own memory of walking patterns. We'll have a story about this idea later on. Overall, the point is to use to the full the few remaining spinal connections so he's ready to meet the scientists when they get to "Utah. " One short-term goal is simply to breathe naturally. He can already do this half an hour at a time. REEVE: What I'm trying to do is get off the vent and I do that with certain breathing exercises but also the treadmill therapy is helping that. What's the connection? How does that help? Well, you're activating the cord, you're taking advantage. You take advantage of an automatic breathing response? Of what's left. I'm not yet able to breathe automatically. Is your diaphragm working? My diaphragm works which is really a miracle because I'm injured at a level way above the diaphragm but by exercising very hard over the last five years I've improved, so I'm going up rather than down. Now, psychologically and emotionally that makes a tremendous difference. Oh, I can imagine. You know, this old saying: Give me the strength to do something about what I can do something about and to accept what I can't do anything about and the wisdom to know the difference. Your recent life has been kind of a vivid example of how hard it is to strike that balance, to find that wisdom. How do you do it? I mean, you must have to accept a certain amount. I don't buy into it at all. You don't accept any of it? No. Who knows what the horizon is? Yeah. You know, who knows how far we're going to go? Why should we put limits on it? You know, you know that pigs aren't going to fly... but I might walk, you know? ( Alda laughing ) ALDA: Chris Reeve's accident had compromised a highly successful acting career. And he decided that he should use his celebrity for all it was worth to further the cause of research into spinal cord treatments. REEVE: The main idea is to put a vision out there and then I even went so far as to do a commercial last year. I didn't see the commercial. Well, what happens in the commercial is that I'm seen walking to give a prize to scientists who, sometime in the future, had cured spinal cord injuries. And it was very upsetting to some people very uplifting to others but five months after the commercial was on the air people are still talking about it. So that's great. You want that debate you want that controversy, you want people to be agitated. But I checked with all the major scientists in the country that I, you know, have a relationship with and they said, "No, there's no reason "not to put that vision before the public because it will happen. " ANNOUNCER: And in the years since the new millennium the world has seen such progress. In 2004, the tide was turned against AIDS two years later, great strides against cancer and tonight-- tonight we celebrate a remarkable breakthrough in spinal cord injuries made possible by countless researchers and contributors. And to present this award, we have some very special guests. In the future so many amazing things will happen in the world. What amazing things can you make happen? What do you think your main contribution is? Is it raising money? Is it focusing attention? Being the person who gets everybody in the boat to row together? What do you think... what do you think of as your main contribution? Well, my responsibility is all of the above. You know, I'm president of a club I didn't want to join but, uh, nevertheless I have to take some responsibility. Not to do so would be really immoral. And I have the chance to speak up for a lot of people you know, who could never get to a congressman or never testify before a Senate committee or influence a budget. So, I actually... You know, I can't say it's my favorite thing to do but nevertheless, uh, psychologically, emotionally it really helps me that, you know, I can be of some use. ALDA: And when he does get back to work he's still trying to be of some use. In this remake of the Hitchcock classic Rear Window he wanted to help change the widespread stereotype of disabled people as isolated and embittered to something different-- to an image of people who could be, in fact, of some use. Achilles... bring up telephone. Dial 911. OPERATOR: 911 operator. I need to report a domestic altercation. OPERATOR: Can you describe what's happening, sir? ALDA: Christopher Reeve could hardly get much further from the stereotype. He set up a foundation which helps fund and coordinate the world's best research in spinal cord injury and he's a tireless advocate. What was an immensely creative life before the accident only seems to have become more so since in both public and private life. REEVE: You find alternate ways to accomplish and to express... your needs, your desires, et cetera. For example, I taught, when I was on my feet my big kids how to ride a bike and, you know, taking the training wheels off. But my young son, Will, was a little afraid to take the training wheels off. But I actually sat out in our driveway in a wheelchair. Somebody took the training wheels off and I talked him through how to do it. Now, isn't that cool? And who would have thought? It's great, you're relentless. I mean, you really don't give up. No, because now we need a way to connect. Yeah, yeah. And so many ways of connecting have been taken away. You know, I haven't been able to give him a hug since he was two years old, and he's almost eight. But he's got to hear it through my voice and through my eyes and just from being there. So I have to find ways to give him what he needs. And one of my jobs-- and this is the paradox of having a debilitating injury or disease-- is that you have to find a way to be more generous than you ever were before when you were on your feet. And what I mean by that is that you have to set people free so they don't spend their life worrying about you. Do you think about... do you let yourself think about how long it will take before they'll be able to get to the point where you can walk again? No, I don't... I don't measure it in terms of months, days or years. I measure it in terms of how hard people are working. So sometimes if I see a scientist at, you know, too many dinners... or, you know, out at too many meetings I say, "Go back to the lab," you know? "Get out of here. "Go put the white coat on, get to work. " You know, so I have a reputation as sort of an amiable pest. ALDA: We're back at the University of Miami to look at a remarkable study that's just getting under way. Rudolfo Stecco has been partially paralyzed

				Moving Memories Going through the motions sparks remarkable progress in paralyzed patients.
		Select text to jump ahead in the clip: since a car accident two years ago. He's one of 200 patients who, over the next five years will test the effects of intensive exercise but exercise during which only about one-third of the body's weight has to be supported by the legs. Put it at 88. 88? ALDA: There's a fascinating story behind this study. It all began six years ago with a patient who was exercising hard in an attempt to improve his walking which was very limited. Blair Calancie, the study director, takes up the story. CALANCIE: He could walk about 75 feet in one 45-minute session. Clearly it was nonfunctional with such small distances. The fourth year he'd come down, he decided he was going to go all out. He was going to embark on a very strenuous physical conditioning program under his own direction and worked out for four hours on the Monday four hours on the Tuesday standing, exercising, a lot of strenuous work. On Wednesday he comes in and says to one of our therapists "I'm getting these weird spasms when I lie down; it's like I'm walking. " She then responded, as was her way "You're a spinal cord injury, you have spasticity. Get used to it. " ALDA: Fortunately, Blair Calancie decided to take a look for himself anyway and what he found was a completely unknown phenomenon. CALANCIE: Just as he had described to us the moment we took him from his wheelchair and he laid out flat on his back his legs began an involuntary stepping pattern. What was intriguing was and what really set us out on this whole area of research is that at the same time the involuntary stepping started at night his ability to walk in the daytime, volitionally improved by an order of ten. So he went within a week from walking 75 feet in a session to 500 and 600 and 700 feet in one session. ALDA: Conventional therapy after a spinal cord injury is something like this-- mild stretching and gentle movement. But suddenly here was the possibility that intensive exercise would dramatically improve walking even 17 years after the injury in this case. CALANCIE: An important consideration for this study is that everybody has to be at least one year post-injury. And under today's current approach with managed care it's not at all unusual for an individual with an acute-- they've just had a recent spinal cord injury-- to be discharged from hospital at six weeks, seven weeks, eight weeks. Maybe they'll get rehab for another month to six weeks after that and beyond that, it's over. ALDA: Ida Fisher, for example, has been partially paralyzed for four years. CALANCIE: Ready to fire up? Let's go. ALDA: She's testing the treadmill and like all the subjects, she's partially suspended. She'd barely be able to move at all otherwise. Christopher Reeve does his treadmill workout regularly by the way. Nice, smooth steps. ALDA: After six weeks in the study Ida's seen a dramatic improvement. FISHER: Before, I walk less; I walk only half an hour. Now I walk an hour. ALDA: The study is recording many such improvements. The intriguing possibility is that the spinal column itself contains some of the instructions for walking. This central pattern generator, as it's called is known in animals but has never been seen before in humans. Hard exercise-- only possible with these subjects when partially suspended-- somehow restimulates the central pattern generator. CALANCIE: We're seeing dramatic improvements in individuals who are at least one year post-injury and often cases five, six, ten years post-injury which suggests that there's a great deal of untapped potential in these individuals. It's a very strong argument to the managed-care companies, to physicians that the common phrase of "Whatever you have at one year post-injury is what you've got for the rest of your life" needs to be rethought. ALDA: And it's an unexpected new source of hope for people with spinal cord injuries. ALDA: Don Crago is paralyzed from the waist down.

				Nerves of Steel Artificial electric stimulation helps the paralyzed stand, walk, and use their hands.
		Select text to jump ahead in the clip: But using artificial electrical muscle stimulation, he can walk. Dr. Byron Marsolais started this project. MARSOLAIS: He has absolutely no control of his legs at all. He is totally and completely paralyzed and every bit of motion that happens is coming through the electrical stim. Don, do you get all your balance from holding on to this walker? Yes, I do, Yes, I do. Does that put a lot of pressure on your arms? No, not really. Most of the pressure's on my legs. Actually, I prefer to let my legs do the work because if I did it with my arms, I would be tired out. Yeah. How tiring is it to take it... uh, every step? Uh, not too bad. It's comfortable, you know? But after the end of the walk, I will breathe heavy. Yeah. Standing takes a lot of energy because you have to stimulate the muscles for a prolonged period? Right-- he is standing by stimulating the flexors and the extensors, the antagonistic muscles, all at the same time. So he's stiff as a board. And that charge just has to be constant. It's constant... If you let up on it, he's liable to tip one way or another. Oh, he would, for sure. And so he looks good standing tall and stiff... ALDA: But you feel the strain? MARSOLAIS: But he's got strain. Yeah, I feel strain. ALDA: My introduction to the functional electrical stimulation or FES, program was eight years ago. What I'm trying to get to is his gluteus maximus muscle-- the big seat muscle. ALDA: Dr. Marsolais showed me how he implants wire electrodes. What you're inserting into the muscle is... that's not the electrode itself? No, this is just a little probe... Right. A very tiny probe. And the reason you're doing this is to see if you can get the muscle to react to give its greatest response? Exactly. And I want just the right muscle. That's the muscle that we want-- it goes right down here into the femur which is the big leg bone. And you see how it's beginning to jump there? It's starting to do what we want. I think I can do better... And in order to do better I have to get it right beside the nerve. ALDA: Dan Kemp, paralyzed in a car accident is on the table. Now, Dr. Marsolais looks like he's found the spot here. That looks pretty good here, yup. That's getting a pretty good, tight... I can see it. See how that... jerks things together there. It looks like about an inch and a half from where you were first searching for it. Yes, that's right, although we're angled a bit down. We started about here, and now we're about here so we were a good inch away. ALDA: Once he's found the best stimulation point for the muscle a hair-thin, permanent wire implant is slid into place. Dan was one of many experimental subjects who volunteered for the program. In his case, he received eight electrodes in each leg. Now we just bring this down to exactly the position that we were before. ALDA: The patients and Dr. Marsolais were literally stepping into the unknown. How do you feel going through this? Do you feel like a guinea pig? KEMP: Yeah, I do, but it's well worth it. You know, down the road, people will be able to look back and say if it wasn't for people like me that they wouldn't have got as far as they've got in the new procedures. So, you know, it goes down the line. Everybody helps everybody else, whether they realize it or not. ALDA: Eric Bellamy, paralyzed in a motorbike accident agreed with Dan that it was worth being a guinea pig. He saw simple, basic ambitions for himself and for the program. BELLAMY: I see being in a chair always but I see being able to go up steps and knock on a friend's door and say, "Hey, I'm down here! " instead of running around the house and screaming, "Hey, I'm here, I'm here! " I see being in a convenience store as one step, you know? Uh, so... Being able to get up and go through a narrow door to go get into the bathroom-- just for them answers. And if they can come up with that right there... Your life's in a chair but being able to overcome difficulties would be a tremendous step and that's what we're working on right now. ALDA: Eric was one of five volunteers who received the most complex of the experimental systems, with a total of 40 implanted and eight external electrodes. The computerized control box could handle 48 electrodes simultaneously with connections made through the skin on his thigh. One big goal was to establish how many muscles needed to be stimulated for effective standing and walking. Working out how to sequence the firing of the electrodes was another challenge. Okay, go ahead and stand up. ALDA: In this trial, 20 muscles per leg were being stimulated compared to the 50 per side that are involved in natural walking. Eric was able to walk relatively smoothly although he still needed to use his arms to balance. Developing an artificial balance mechanism is still one of the goals, but they have been able to reduce the number of muscles needed for walking to only eight per side-- as in the latest system we saw Don Crago using earlier. But Eric's muscles had to work constantly at full blast. MAN: They're using tremendous amounts of muscle mass. Their quadriceps are on 100% their gluteal muscles are on 100% their hamstring muscles are on 100% their back muscles-- everything's just blasted. Whenever they do something they're using 100% of all their strength. Whether it's one step, two steps they're using everything they got. Like when you stand, everything goes right into it, 100%, bam! Okay? ALDA: With tough, motivated subjects like Eric they were eventually able to work out how to reduce the high levels of muscle stimulation and they also figured out the best design philosophy. It's that simpler is better. They realized that even the most complex systems were going to get tripped up by the real world sometimes. Stop! Stop altogether. ALDA: Better instead to go for simpler standard systems that can bring basic benefits to the largest number of people quickly. Many of the pioneers in FES research have now dropped out. Eric got a bad infection. Dan couldn't keep up the long commutes to the hospital. But today, many people with spinal cord injuries have good reason to be thankful for the pioneers' efforts. This is an easy introduction to the real world, I guess you could say. ALDA: Jen Penko is one of the beneficiaries. She's showing me a rehab area at Cleveland Metro Medical Center-- the first of three centers around the country to be working with the simplified standard systems. PENKO: For instance, there's curb cuts and those types of things. It takes a little extra energy to get up that, doesn't it? A little bit, but you'll get curbs in the real world that are a lot more difficult than that. You can just set it right there because I'll get myself set up. ALDA: Jen has a simplified system th just does one thing-- allows her to stand. PENKO: So, the light by the "stand" means that it's ready to stand and all I need to do is press this button to go and it will stand. Ready? Yeah. Are you sure you're ready? Yeah, I'm ready. ( beep ) ( beep ) ( beep ) ALDA: Jen's system has only four implanted electrodes per side but that allows her to stand and get around just enough to really make a difference. PENKO: So, here I can reach up, grab window cleaner and hand it over to you. How long can you stand before you start to feel stressed out or you're breathing heavily? We did a test on that-- 33 minutes and eight seconds was my time breaker right now. So... And that was a few weeks ago, so... Usually when you're in a grocery store one of the tough things when you're in a wheelchair is you can't really see within these big bins. So that way you can reach over, pick up some Weight Watchers because Lord knows I need it. And you can start to see things from a standing level that you really can't see from a sitting level. Whereas if I was at a sitting level I'd be lucky if I'd be able to see what was actually in here. Do you want to go to walking? Is that something you have in mind? Absolutely. Absolutely-- to be able to ambulate is fantastic. I mean, just to be able to stand. We're focusing on the functional things but there's a lot of health benefits to standing as well. I mean, people that are in wheelchairs that don't stand-- you have problems with the shortening of muscles with osteoporosis, with circulation. So, you have to be able to get into... pretty much any kind of a seat. ALDA: Simply transferring from one seat to another is a big benefit. Automobile seat and a booth like this which is different from a chair. Right. ( beep ) One, two, three... ( beep ) Those are three slow seconds. They are. And considering I'm from the Boston area I've had to learn how to count a lot slower... than out here. So it took me a long time to learn how to count. They count slower in Cleveland? I guess they do. ALDA: Another part of the design philosophy is modularity. If Jen and her doctors decide everything is working well she can get another eight electrode implants which will allow her to walk. Now I'll sit. ( beep ) So, you have the same three seconds before it puts you in the seated position? ( beep ) Mm-hmm. Same audio that goes through as well. Same beeping cycle. So it's just like a habit-- training me like a mouse. There you go-- beep. Three seconds later-- beep, and I'm standing up. What do you call the thing that's implanted? What is that? It's my receiver. Yeah... How big is it? Um, it's about that big... it's not very big at all. In fact... ALDA: A big change with the standard systems is that no wires pass through the skin. This here... So, this is the box that holds the batteries that holds the software and circuit boards. ALDA: Instead there's a transmitting coil with an implanted receiver. There's the coil... that goes to my receiver. I have it taped onto the skin so it won't move. So I have this coil that sends the radio waves to the receiver that's right here and you see the little bump in the skin right there? That's the receiver. ALDA: There are now nearly 200 standard systems in use but research is continuing. Jim Jatich received the very first implanted electrodes in 1986, to allow his left hand to grip. JATICH: Since I had this implant once it's put on me in the morning I'm on my own and I can write for myself, feed myself answer the phone, take messages, work on a computer. I do engineering drawings on a computer-- I'm trying to start my own business doing that. That would have been out of the question. I mean, without a tremendous amount of help. ALDA: Jim lives with his family just outside of Cleveland. When we first met him in 1993 he described for us how he had been injured. JATICH: Back in the summer of 1977 I was swimming with several other friends in a lake nearby. They dove into the lake and started swimming away. I was the last one to dive into the lake. I hit something on the bottom. It wasn't anything hard that knocked me out but I felt my neck jam into my shoulders and then I started slowly sinking into the seaweed at the bottom of the lake. I couldn't move anything, my arms or legs when, uh, I felt two arms on my shoulders and they pulled me to shore and right away I knew that I had broken my neck. ALDA: Jim has no lower-body control and only limited upper-body strength. For 23 years he's allowed the researchers to try out new FES systems on him. In 1993, for example, they were perfecting a joystick controller for the eight electrodes that give him his hand grip. The joystick was attached to his right shoulder. So a quick shrug of the shoulder activates the grip. And then a double shrug relaxes it. Jim was also one of the first to try an implanted receiver so no wires penetrate the skin. JATICH: What we have is... like a joystick implanted in the bones of my wrist. ALDA: Today Jim is trying another experimental control system. JATICH: There's a magnet and a sensor and as the wrist bones pass each other that sends a signal to the implant and depending at what angle I'm at whatever is programmed into the computer on back of my wheelchair that's how much strength and how fast my hand closes. So, the magnet and the sensor-- depending on how far apart they are as you move your hand back-- that regulates everything that's going to happen. Right. ALDA: Jim and the researchers have been working with the implanted magnet control for a couple of years. Now, if that were full of coffee and heavy... You can... see how strong I'm holding it. Yeah, you have a really good grip on that. Yeah. Yeah. You're a good actor, too. Looked like you had something in there. Oh, it's hot. ( both laughing ) ALDA: With the magnets controlling his left hand Jim's joystick can now control a new implant system in his right hand so next he'll be working with the researchers on tasks that need two hands simultaneously. Jim's essentially a member of the research team but one perhaps with a special perspective of the benefits of the FES program. You know, I've talked to friends of mine that are paralyzed. They won't go into restaurants when we have meetings, you know, like a support group meeting because they can't feed themselves. They don't want to see anyone feeding them so whenever we have meetings in a hospital or something they show up but when we have it in a restaurant, they won't go because someone has to feed them, you know. So, there's a, uh... there's a series of things that don't get done because of a simple thing like not being able to pick up a fork. I mean, you get less social. That's right. An example is a girl that came into this project to get an implant. When she first came in, you know, her face was down she wouldn't talk to anyone, no eye contact. After she got the implant, you know, she's feeding herself going out to restaurants, she enrolled back in school. Now she's an advocate, talking to everyone about it. She started a support group. And, I mean, you know, it just changes people's lives. And that's the kick I get out of it, to see how people change. How's that feel? Okay? Yeah, that's very nice. Not too tight? No, no, no, I like this. ALDA:

				Mind Over Matter Scientists harness the brain's potential to move objects with the power of thought.
		Select text to jump ahead in the clip: The producers have had me wear these attractive hats before but it's usually in a good cause. And in this case I was presented with a really fascinating challenge. I'm trying to just think about moving the white dot toward the bar while a computer looks at my brain waves and tries to pick up any signals that appear when I succeed. There's only one problem: I'm not succeeding. It's incredibly difficult when you first try it but they say it really can be done although most people need dozens of training sessions to make it work. This is like lifting things with your eyelids. ALDA: But every now and then, I did make it happen and I could see how you could train yourself to succeed consistently. It's more relaxed than being relaxed. It's... it's utter calm, almost nothingness. But there's the sense of doing it, of knowing it'll happen. ALDA: Andrew Junker is the man who first persuaded people to take seriously the idea that minds can control machines. When we filmed this eight years ago he'd been at it for a decade. JUNKER: I pick up the electrical signals from the head connect them to a bio-amplifier-- which amplifies the signal 20,000 times. It sends it to this blue box, which is the radio transmitter. The transmitter sends the signal to a receiver which is connected to the computer. ALDA: The machine Andrew liked to control was his sailboat. It's about to take a turn around the harbor of St. Thomas with neither Andrew nor his wife, Patricia having to lift a finger. ( electric motor humming ) The computer is linked to a motor-driven wheel and it's getting its signals from three electrodes inside Andrew's headband. As with the hat I was wearing the electrodes are picking up the electrical activity of Andrew's brain. Unlike me, he successfully taught himself to increase or decrease one particular component of this activity. His computer was programmed so that an increase turns the boat to the left... ( electric motor humming ) I'm turning left now. ( electric motor humming ) ALDA: While a decrease turns the boat to the right. Now I'll turn right. ( electric motor humming ) That last experience felt fantastic because I felt in a groove. Right here I felt like I was in this slot. And as long as I held that slot I could delicately suppress or intensify the signal and the boat responded, and it's a fantastic feeling. ALDA: Now, I know what you're thinking: "A man sailing a boat in the Caribbean with his brain waves-- that's something they expect us to take seriously? " But in fact Andrew Junker's work was then being taken very seriously by, of all things, the U. S. Air Force. Flying fast combat planes is a very complicated business and the pilot has only two hands and feet to do it. As more and more high-tech systems are added the pilot's in danger of having more controls to operate than ways to operate them... which is where Andrew Junker entered the picture. As an Air Force researcher he set up a laboratory to study brain-machine communication here at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio. Pilots like Captain Dave Toomey got pretty good at it and the researchers were able to measure what was happening fairly easily. Everything you look at out in the world produces a measurable response in your brain. In this case it's the response of Dave's brain to that light in the cab that's flickering 13 times a second. ALDA: The flickering produces in the back of Dave's brain what's called an "evoked potential"-- an electrical signal that can be picked up by electrodes on his scalp. Here's the signal. Keep your eye on the white dot in the middle. Dave's task is to try to change the height of the peak marked by the dot either increasing it and holding it there... or decreasing it and keeping it suppressed. TOOMEY: It feels as if you're doing something on a psychic level. It feels like those things you've seen on TV with the Russians bending spoons and moving balls on tables. It feels like that-- it feels like it's purely psychic. But in fact, it's hard science, it's pure science. It's just using something that the brain does naturally with some very high-tech equipment in order to make the link possible-- the human brain-to-machine link. ALDA: The machine Dave's controlling is a simple flight simulator. When he suppresses the signal, the simulator rolls to the left. And when he increases the signal, he rolls to the right. So far, so good. But how does he do it? We don't really know in any detail at all how people do this-- how they actually exercise this kind of brain-actuated control. And what we usually do when people ask us that question is try to give them an analogy: You know, how does a baby learn how to walk? ALDA: The idea has now found a new home with our tireless FES research subject, Jim Jatich. The Air Force eventually gave up not because it didn't work but because they were concerned it wouldn't work quickly and reliably. But Jim has trained himself to become incredibly good at controlling the dot with his mind. JATICH: When I see it down, I'm actually thinking "down," or like a fishing weight sinking down to the bottom of a lake. When I'm thinking up I'm thinking "up" or like a balloon floating. ALDA: It occurred to the researchers that this would make the ideal way to control an implanted FES system. So now instead of thinking about fishing weights and balloons Jim just has to think "close hand"... And it really works. TECHNICIAN: Not too bad. All right, let me change that. Okay, go ahead and close. ALDA: It's almost a miracle. Open. There we go. Okay, Jim, close. There we go. JATICH: The first time that I actually opened and closed my hand-- it didn't hit me when we were doing it in the lab. When I was outside in front of the hospital you know, just sitting there waiting for my ride to come it actually hit me that I actually opened and closed my hand by actually thinking about it, and then tears came to my eyes. That's the closest thing to what I used to have that God actually gave me... you know. I mean, it hit me all of a sudden and then it was overwhelming. But when I was doing it in the lab it was just another experiment. ( chuckles ) So, I mean, you know But it's going to take time and a lot of people's effort. I'm ready to go. ( chuckles ) Yeah. Come visit us at PBS Online. Scientific American Frontiers can be found on the World Wide Web at pbs.

Take a look at these related stories from the Frontiers Archive:

				How to Make a Nose Scientists are learning how to grow living spare parts to order in the lab, including heart muscle, liver, intestine and cartilage.
		Select text to jump ahead in the clip: IT'S NEVER BEEN HARD TO PUT TOGETHER BODY PARTS... IN THE MOVIES. Dr. Frankenstein: IT'S ALIVE. IT'S ALIVE, IT'S ALIVE, IT'S ALIVE. IT'S ALIVE! Alda: BUT HOLLYWOOD BETTER LOOK OUT BECAUSE M.I.T. SCIENTISTS ARE GETTING IN ON THE ACT. DOES HE HAVE THE NOSE? YEAH, IT'S COMING. YOU GOT IT? THAT'S THE NOSE? IT'S RIGHT IN THE DISH HERE. Alda: OKAY NOW, WE ARE NOT-- REPEAT NOT-- ON A MOVIE SET. Alda: WHAT IS THIS? THIS IS CARTILAGE. IT'S A SCAFFOLD OF... YOU SEE THE NOSTRILS? OH, YUCK! WAIT A MINUTE. LOOK, WITH NOSTRILS AND EVERYTHING. YEAH, WE MADE A SCAFFOLD AND THERE'S THE LITTLE NOSTRILS THERE AND THAT'S PURE CARTILAGE. YOU COULD MAKE IT IN BIG BLOCKS AND CARVE WHATEVER SHAPE YOU WANT. EXACTLY, EXACTLY, THAT'S THE WHOLE IDEA. WOULD YOU MIND TAKING THIS BACK? I REALLY DON'T WANT TO... I MEAN IT'S ALIVE... IT'S SORT OF ALIVE. YEAH, SORT OF ALIVE. WE JUST WANTED TO GIVE YOU A FLAVOR FOR IT. UNBELIEVABLE! YOU BRING IN A NOSE! I MEAN, THAT'S... I CAN'T GET OVER THAT. Alda: IN THIS M. I.T. LAB THEY'RE ACTUALLY FIGURING OUT HOW TO MAKE BODY PARTS. Woman: FIRST, WE MAKE WHAT WE CALL A POLYMER SCAFFOLD AND THAT'S A PIECE OF SYNTHETIC MATERIAL THAT WE CAN MAKE INTO THE FORM OF A SHEET OR OTHER THREE- DIMENSIONAL FORMS. Alda: NOW WE'RE MAKING HEART MUSCLE STARTING WITH LITTLE CLUMPS OF SYNTHETIC FIBERS-- THE POLYMER SCAFFOLD AS THEY CALL IT. THEN THE SCAFFOLD IS BATHED IN LIVING HEART CELLS. BOB LANGER HAS PIONEERED THIS NEW FIELD OF TISSUE ENGINEERING. Langer: SHE'S TRYING TO MIMIC, OUTSIDE THE BODY WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENS INSIDE THE BODY. SHE'S GIVING IT THE KIND OF FOOD IT NEEDS THE KIND OF STRUCTURE IT NEEDS AND EVEN THE KIND OF MIXING, YOU KNOW THAT IT MAY GET INSIDE THE BODY. Alda: IF YOU GET THE CONDITIONS JUST RIGHT YOU CAN GROW PIECES OF LIVING HEART TISSUE. I'M LOOKING AT SOMETHING THAT'S MAKING HEART. DOES THAT SORT OF STRIKE YOU EVERY ONCE IN A WHILE THAT YOU'RE MAKING THESE THINGS THAT USED TO BE IF YOU LOST IT THAT'D BE THE END. YEAH-- WELL, THAT'S WHAT WE WANT TO DO, YOU KNOW. IT DOES STRIKE US. WHAT WE HOPE IS THAT SOMEDAY WE'LL BE ABLE TO HAVE A WHOLE SERIES OF REPLACEMENT PARTS FOR PEOPLE SO IF THEY FIND A PROBLEM, WE'LL BE ABLE TO HELP THEM. IT'S LIKE AN AUTO PART SHOP, YOU KNOW. I NEED A NEW CARBURETOR AND YOU JUST GO IN AND YOU DRIVE OUT AGAIN. I MEAN, THIS IS... HOW MANY YEARS AWAY ARE WE FROM HAVING A PART SHOP FOR BODIES-- I MEAN, WHERE YOU REALLY CAN JUST GET WHAT YOU NEED? IS IT TEN YEARS, 50 YEARS A HUNDRED YEARS? MUST BE HARD TO GUESS. RIGHT-- I THINK IT MAY DEPEND ON THE PART, YOU KNOW. SOME OF THE EASIER PARTS LIKE SKIN OR CARTILAGE I THINK, YOU KNOW, THAT'S PROBABLY FIVE OR TEN YEARS. SOME OF THE HARDER PARTS LIKE HEART-- THAT MAY BE MANY, MANY YEARS AWAY 50 OR... YOU KNOW, IT'S HARD TO KNOW. Alda: HERE, AFTER ABOUT TWO WEEKS OF GROWTH ARE THE PIECES OF NEW HEART. THEY'RE UNDER A MICROSCOPE AND THEN YOU CAN SEE IT ON THAT MONITOR? THAT'S RIGHT, WE HAVE A MICROSCOPE HERE AND THEN BASICALLY THEY'RE ON THE MONITOR AND YOU CAN SEE THEM BEATING. THE DISH SHAKING. THOSE ARE SEPARATE CELLS BEATING. RIGHT-- SAY, TAKE A LOOK RIGHT DOWN HERE, FOR EXAMPLE, OR HERE. AND THESE ARE INDIVIDUAL HEART MUSCLE CELLS AND THEY'RE JUST BEATING. IS THERE ANY WAY YOU COULD MAKE USE OF THAT RIGHT NOW IN A HEART? IT'S TOO EARLY TO DO THAT NOW BUT SOMEDAY WHAT I EXPECT IS THAT WE COULD MAKE A SHEET OF THIS, YOU KNOW AND MAKE CARDIAC MUSCLE. AND SOMEDAY, IF WE HAVE THE RIGHT TYPE OF CELLS TO ACTUALLY TRANSPLANT THAT ONTO A PATIENT YOU KNOW, IF THEY HAVE... IF SOME OF THEIR HEART MUSCLE'S DAMAGED. Alda: RIGHT NOW THEY'RE WORKING WITH ANIMAL CELLS BUT BOB LANGER'S HOPE IS NOT AT ALL FARFETCHED. TAKE A LOOK AT ONE OF THOSE PIECES OF HEART AS THEY GIVE IT AN E. K.G. LIKE A REGULAR HEART CHECKUP YOU MIGHT GET FROM YOUR DOCTOR. THE NEW TISSUE TRANSMITS HEARTBEATS EXACTLY AS IT SHOULD. ( monitor beeping ) WITH TISSUE ENGINEERING ADVANCING RAPIDLY THE SEARCH IS ON FOR A RELIABLE SOURCE OF HUMAN CELLS TO GROW PARTS FROM. I'M VISITING MICHAEL WEST AT HIS COMPANY, ADVANCED CELL TECHNOLOGY. HE'S AIMING TO MAKE ANY KIND OF CELL REQUIRED-- HEART, LIVER, SKIN, YOU NAME IT-- STARTING FROM THE KIND OF CELL WE ALL CAME FROM. THEY'RE CALLED "STEM CELLS. " STEM CELLS ARE THE FIRST CELLS THAT GROW AS AN EMBRYO DEVELOPS. ALL BODY PARTS ARE DERIVED FROM THEM SO THE IDEA IS TO GROW HUMAN STEM CELLS INSIDE COW EGGS. GO STRAIGHT IN? YEAH, STRAIGHT IN. Alda: THE TECHNIQUE IS JUST LIKE THE ONE USED TO CLONE DOLLY THE SHEEP. FIRST, I HAVE TO PIERCE THE COW EGG AND SUCK OUT THE NUCLEUS CONTAINING THE COW'S GENETIC MATERIAL. THERE'S A SYRINGE NEXT TO YOUR HAND NOW. TURN IT. THERE IT IS. HERE IT COMES. WATCH THIS, WATCH THIS, GUYS. THIS IS GOOD, THIS IS GOOD. HAVE I GOT IT? GO BACK A LITTLE BIT MORE. OKAY, GOT IT, GOT IT. PERFECT-- RIGHT THERE IS PERFECT. Alda: NEXT, I PICK UP A HUMAN CELL-- THIS ONE'S A SKIN CELL. NOW I SLIDE THE HUMAN CELL INTO THE COW EGG. THIS IS STARTLING RESEARCH. PRODUCING HUMAN CELLS INSIDE ANIMAL EGGS IS AN UNPRECEDENTED IDEA. Alda: IT'S AMAZING THAT YOU CAN GET THESE HUMAN CELLS TO GROW INSIDE THE COW EGG. IT'S AMAZING TO ME. WHY DON'T YOU USE A HUMAN EGG TO DO THIS? THIS IS POTENTIALLY A TECHNOLOGY THAT COULD BE USED TO TREAT UPWARDS OF HALF OF ALL HEALTHCARE PROBLEMS. WE COULD MAKE BETA CELLS FOR DIABETES OR CARTILAGE CELLS FOR ARTHRITIS, AND SO ON. THERE'S LITERALLY MILLIONS OF PEOPLE THAT WOULD NEED THE TECHNOLOGY AND SO YOU'D NEED MILLIONS OF HUMAN EGG CELLS AND THEY'RE SIMPLY NOT AVAILABLE. AT THE END, THERE'S A LITTLE ELECTRIC SHOCK WHICH STIMULATES THE HUMAN NUCLEUS TO START DIVIDING INSIDE THE SHELTER OF THE COW EGG. AND THE HUMAN STEM CELLS MULTIPLY. THE NEXT STEP HAS TO BE SIGNALING THE STEM CELLS TO MAKE PARTICULAR CELLS, LIKE HEART OR CARTILAGE. SCIENTISTS ARE BEGINNING TO DO THAT BUT ISN'T THIS ALL A BIT SCARY? Alda: IS THERE ANYTHING IN THE COW EGG THAT GIVES A COW ANY OF ITS CHARACTERISTICS THAT COULD GET INTO THE HUMAN CELLS OR MIX WITH THEM IN SOME WAY SO THAT YOU'D WIND UP WITH SOME COW CHARACTERISTICS OF ANY KIND WITH HUMAN CHARACTERISTICS IN THESE CELLS? DO YOU KNOW THAT CAN'T HAPPEN? THERE'S THE POSSIBILITY THAT THE MITOCHONDRIA COULD LIVE ON. THEY'RE LITTLE, WHAT WE CALL "ORGANELLES" WITHIN THE EGG. THAT'S WHAT WE GET THE ENERGY FROM. YEAH, THEY'RE LITTLE BATTERIES. THEY HAVE THEIR OWN DNA. BUT ALL OF OUR INFORMATION THAT WE HAVE IN OUR HANDS TODAY WOULD SUGGEST THAT THOSE CANNOT SURVIVE SO THAT THE COW MITOCHONDRIA WILL DIE AND THAT THE HUMAN MITOCHONDRIA THEN WILL LIVE ON. AND SO OUR BELIEF IS THAT THE CELLS WOULD EVENTUALLY BECOME ENTIRELY HUMAN. Alda: FULLY EXPECTING THAT ONE DAY ENGINEERED HUMAN CELLS AND BODY PARTS WILL BE AVAILABLE JAY VACANTI, A PEDIATRIC TRANSPLANT SURGEON AT MASS GENERAL IN BOSTON IS DEVELOPING MEDICAL TECHNOLOGIES TO USE THE NEW MATERIALS. THEY'RE WORKING, FOR EXAMPLE ON A WAY TO IMPLANT REPLACEMENT CELLS IN A DAMAGED HEART USING A SPECIAL GEL. IT'S AN INTERESTING PLASTIC MATERIAL THAT TURNS INTO... ON SPECIFIC SIGNALING, IT'LL TURN INTO SOMETHING THAT SORT OF FEELS LIKE JELL-O. SO IT STARTS OUT ONE WAY AND THEN IT TURNS INTO JELLO? EXACTLY. IS THERE SOMETHING ABOUT THIS GEL THAT'S ALLOWING YOU TO DO SOMETHING YOU NEVER DID BEFORE? YES, THE REASON WE USE A GEL IS BECAUSE IT ALLOWS THE CELLS TO ALIGN VERY CLOSELY TO ONE ANOTHER AND TALK TO EACH OTHER. ONCE THEY CAN START TALKING TO EACH OTHER THEY ACTUALLY THEN START FORMING NEW TISSUE. Alda: RIGHT NOW THEY'RE USING THE GEL TO IMPLANT NEW MOUSE HEART CELLS UNDER THE SAME CONDITIONS THEY'D USE FOR PEOPLE. SO HERE WHAT WE'RE GOING TO DO IS ACTUALLY TAKE THIS PREPARATION THAT WE'VE MADE AND PUT IT IN THE HEART MUSCLE. SO YOU WANT TO SEE IF YOU CAN GET THESE CELLS THAT YOU'RE INJECTING TO ACTUALLY MERGE WITH THE EXISTING HEART CELLS? EXACTLY RIGHT. Alda: THIS IS THE KIND OF TECHNIQUE THAT DR. VACANTI HOPES WILL EVENTUALLY RELIEVE THE WIDESPREAD AND TRAGIC SHORTAGE OF TRANSPLANT ORGANS THAT EXISTS RIGHT NOW. SO FAR IT'S LOOKING PROMISING. NOW, IS THIS AN INTESTINE THAT YOU'VE ALLOWED TO GROW IN HERE? Vacanti: YEAH, ACTUALLY, WHAT WE'RE GOING TO SEE HERE IS A PIECE OF NEW INTESTINE THAT'S BEEN TISSUE-ENGINEERED AND HAS BEEN BACK IN THE ANIMAL NOW FOR THREE WEEKS. Alda: REPLACEMENT INTESTINE, LIVER, CARTILAGE, HEART VALVES EVEN HEART MUSCLE. ONE DAY WE'RE GOING TO HAVE SPARE PARTS GROWN JUST FOR YOU STARTING WITH YOUR OWN STEM CELLS SO THERE'LL BE NO REJECTION PROBLEMS AND NO DOUBT AS A RESULT, WE'RE GOING TO LIVE LONGER. NOW, YOU WALK

				Body Builders Robots that move and act like humans aren’t just science fiction. Robotic legs give hope to the paralyzed.
		Select text to jump ahead in the clip: " Alda: ROBOTS, TO MOST PEOPLE MEAN MACHINES BASED NOT ON INSECTS OR FISH, BUT US. THE ROBOT RECENTLY UNVEILED BY HONDA CERTAINLY QUALIFIES. MODELED ON HOW PEOPLE MOVE IT WOWED THE WORLD OF ROBOTICS WITH ITS SUPERB ENGINEERING. BUT RIGHT NOW IT'S AN ELABORATE PUPPET ITS EVERY MOTION CONTROLLED BY AN OPERATOR BEHIND THE SCENES OR PROGRAMMED IN ADVANCE. CHANGE THE WIDTH OF THESE STAIRS, FOR INSTANCE AND THE ROBOT WOULD BE IN TROUBLE. TO REALLY WALK AS A HUMAN WALKS MEANS YOU HAVE TO REALLY UNDERSTAND HOW PEOPLE DO IT AND THAT'S THE REASON FOR THIS MACHINE STRUTTING ITS STUFF AROUND A BASEMENT LABORATORY AT M. I.T. Alda: IS IT HELPED TO STAND ERECT IN ANY WAY BY THIS BAR? Man: THE BOOM KEEPS IT SO IT CAN'T GO SIDE TO SIDE. IT ONLY-- OOPS. UH, IT SEEMS TO HAVE TAKEN A DIVE. YEAH. WHAT HAPPENED? ONE OF THE MOTORS GAVE OUT. I'M HAVING A PROBLEM WITH ONE MOTOR. I HAVE TO FIX IT. Alda: I'M BEGINNING TO WONDER IF I'M SOME SORT OF A ROBOT JINX BUT HAPPILY, GERRY PRATT IS UNFAZED. GET IT STARTED UP AGAIN. IT'S USUALLY PRETTY RELIABLE. PROBABLY WALKED ABOUT TEN MILES SINCE I BUILT IT. YOU'RE IMITATING A HUMAN GAIT BUT YOU DON'T HAVE HUMAN MATERIALS HERE. YOU DON'T HAVE ANY MUSCLE OR... THE MATERIALS WE HAVE TO WORK WITH ARE A LOT DIFFERENT THAN BIOLOGICAL MATERIALS BUT WE STILL CAN GET A LOT OF THE SAME KIND OF FLAVORS CONTROLLING THE MOTION. Alda: THE ROBOT GETS A NATURAL SPRING TO ITS STEP NOT FROM MUSCLES AND TENDONS BUT FROM ACTUAL SPRINGS BUILT INTO ITS MOTORS. DO YOU HAVE TO KEEP GOING BACK TO STUDYING LEGS AND FEET AND STUFF EVERY TIME YOU RUN INTO A PROBLEM TO SEE HOW NATURE SOLVES IT? YEAH, WE WATCH A LOT OF VIDEO WATCH A LOT OF PEOPLE WALKING ON TREADMILLS AND ANIMALS AND IT'S JUST... ALMOST FRUSTRATING HOW GOOD THEY ARE AT WALKING. BUT YOU'VE SEEN PEOPLE WALKING FOR ALL THE YEARS OF YOUR LIFE. I'VE BEEN WALKING ALL BUT TWO OF THE YEARS OF MY LIFE AND I DON'T KNOW HOW I DO IT. Alda: FOR INSTANCE, THERE'S A LITTLE MATTER OF KNEECAPS. ONE NICE THING THAT WE FOUND BY LOOKING AT NATURE IS KNEECAPS. WHAT ARE THEY GOOD FOR? ONE WAY TO LOOK AT IT IS IF YOU DON'T HAVE A KNEECAP YOUR LEG IS IN KIND OF A BUCKLING CONFIGURATION. IT WANTS TO BUCKLE IN ONE DIRECTION OR THE OTHER AND TO CONTROL THAT IS RATHER DIFFICULT BECAUSE IF IT'S A LITTLE BIT TO THAT WAY YOU'VE GOT TO PUSH IT THAT WAY. IF IT'S A LITTLE THAT WAY YOU PUSH IT THAT WAY AND IT WILL START CHATTERING. IF YOU HAVE A KNEECAP YOU CAN SIMPLY PUSH UNTIL YOU HIT THE KNEECAP AND THAT'S IT. Alda: BUT GERRY PRATT HAS A BIGGER GOAL THAN SIMPLY MAKING A ROBOT WALK LIKE A PERSON. Pratt: SAY YOU HAVE A PERSON WHO HAS SPINAL INJURY AND THEY CAN'T CONTROL THEIR LEGS ANY MORE. IF YOU HAVE TO CONTROL THEIR LEGS FOR THEM YOU HAVE TO KNOW WHAT... YOU HAVE TO DO IT IN A WAY THAT THE LEG WOULD WORK... WOULD WORK BEST. SO THE MORE YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT WALKING IS ALL ABOUT THE BETTER YOU CAN BUILD THESE DEVICES. THAT'S VERY INTERESTING. I HEAR THAT OVER AND OVER AGAIN, THAT AS WE LOOK AT NATURE AND MAKE MACHINES THAT COPY NATURE WE UNDERSTAND NATURE BETTER. IT'S FUNNY, BECAUSE YOU'D THINK YOU'D HAVE TO UNDERSTAND IT AN AWFUL LOT TO BE ABLE TO MAKE THE MACHINE AND YET MAKING THE MACHINE ACTUALLY GIVES YOU A DEEPER LOOK AT NATURE, DOESN'T IT? YUP, IT'S A TWO-WAY STREET. ( banging on drum ) Alda: BANGING ITS OWN DRUM IS A ROBOT THAT'S BEING BUILT SPECIFICALLY TO EXPLORE THAT TWO-WAY STREET BETWEEN NATURE AND MACHINES. ALAN, IF YOU GRAB A HOLD OF THIS YOU'LL BE ABLE TO FEEL... Alda: WE FIRST VISITED RODNEY BROOKS AND HIS CREATION, COG AT M.I.T. SIX YEARS AGO. CAN YOU FEEL IT SORT OF CLICK? Alda: BACK THEN ROD WAS UNUSUAL IN TAKING A BIOLOGICAL APPROACH TO ROBOT DESIGN AND WIDELY REGARDED AS ARROGANTLY AMBITIOUS IN CHOOSING TO MODEL NOT AN INSECT OR A FISH BUT A HUMAN BEING. Brooks: BY BEING A HUMAN SHAPE AND HAVING THE SAME ARRANGEMENT OF EYES, ETC. IT WILL ENCOURAGE PEOPLE TO INTERACT WITH IT AS THOUGH IT WAS HUMAN AND IT WILL HAVE THE SAME SORTS OF EXPERIENCES THAT A HUMAN HAS WHEN A HUMAN DEVELOPS. LAST TIME I WAS HERE... ( laughs ) EXCUSE ME, I'M TALKING TO HIM. LAST TIME I WAS HERE... ( chuckles ) HE COULD DO SOME BASIC THINGS. I WAS WONDERING WHAT CAN HE DO NOW THAT'S... ( chuckles ) THAT'S DIFFERENT? WE DO A LOT OF DIFFERENT THINGS RIGHT NOW. PARTLY WE'VE BUILT UPON THE SKILLS THAT WE'VE ACQUIRED EARLIER BUT WHAT WE'VE ALSO MOVED INTO IS SOME MORE MANIPULATIVE TASKS DOING THINGS WITH THE TWO ARMS THAT WE HAVE NOW AND ALSO SOME MORE SOCIAL TASKS WITH MORE INTERACTION WITH PEOPLE. WHAT'S IT INTERESTED IN DOING? I MEAN, HERE IT'S LOOKING AT MY HANDS. WHAT IS IT PLANNING TO DO ABOUT THAT? WELL, RIGHT NOW IT DOESN'T PLAN TO DO VERY MUCH OTHER THAN PAY ATTENTION TO WHAT'S HAPPENING. SO THE ROBOT ATTENDS TO CERTAIN THINGS LIKE MOVEMENT, FACES, QUICKLY MOVING OBJECTS BRIGHTLY COLORED OBJECTS. THAT TILT OF THE HEAD AND THE EYES REALLY FOCUSING IN DOES GIVE YOU THE IMPRESSION THAT IT'S PAYING ATTENTION TO YOU. Alda: IN 1994, COG HAD ONLY ONE ARM AND THAT WAS STILL ATTACHED TO THE LABORATORY BENCH. ( whirring ) TWO YEARS LATER, ARM IN PLACE, COG WAS LEARNING TO REACH. THIS TIME, COG HAS BOTH HIS ARMS AND HAS APPARENTLY BECOME A VERY BAD DRUMMER. NOW, I CONFESS TO BEING BAFFLED AS TO WHAT MATT WILLIAMSON IS TRYING TO PROVE HERE. I THINK THE IDEA IS FOR COG TO PICK UP MATT'S RHYTHM BUT THE OPPOSITE SEEMS TO BE HAPPENING. YEAH, IT SOUNDS TO ME LIKE YOU'RE STARTING ONE RHYTHM AND THEN YOU'RE SYNCHRONIZING WITH ITS RHYTHM AND IT'S NOT CHANGING ITS RHYTHM. IT'S A LOT SMARTER THAN WE ARE. I SEE WHAT YOU MEAN! Alda: SO I HAVE A TRY. WHAT'S SUPPOSED TO BE HAPPENING IS THAT COG SHOULD BE SYNCHRONIZING THE DRUMBEATS BY LISTENING TO BOTH MY BEATS AND ITS OWN. BUT I DON'T HEAR IT. WHAT'S MORE, I DON'T QUITE GET THE POINT. CAN YOU TELL ME WHAT IT IS THAT YOU'RE DOING HERE THAT'S DIFFERENT FROM OTHER ROBOTS? THE DIFFERENCE IS HAVING THIS FEEDBACK LOOP WHICH APPEARS ON THE SURFACE TO BE COMPLETELY IRRELEVANT. ( both laughing ) WHAT IS IT AT A MUCH DEEPER LEVEL? ( both continue laughing ) Alda: MATT, A VERY PATIENT YOUNG MAN, SETS UP COG SO THAT ITS LEFT HAND DOESN'T KNOW WHAT ITS RIGHT HAND IS DOING, EXCEPT BY LISTENING TO IT. MAKE IT NOT LISTEN, OKAY? IT'S NOT LISTENING. ( drumbeats out of rhythm ) OKAY, SOMETIMES IT'S IN PHASE AND SOMETIMES IT'S NOT. Alda: MATT NOW SWITCHES ON COG'S EARS. IT'S LISTENING NOW. ( drumbeats synchronize ) OKAY, IT TOOK ABOUT THREE OR FOUR BEATS TO FIND ITSELF. YEAH, THAT'S BECAUSE IT'S LISTENING TO BOTH SOUNDS. Alda: I THINK I'M GETTING IT. THE TRICK IS TO STOP THINKING OF COG AS A CONVENTIONAL ROBOT. IF IT WERE, YOU'D SIMPLY PROGRAM THE TWO ARMS TO HIT TOGETHER BUT THEN YOU'D MISS THE FACT THAT THE RIGHT DRUMSTICK IS FREE TO BOUNCE, AND SO ISN'T COMPLETELY PREDICTABLE. Alda: THAT MEANS EVERY TIME THE RIGHT ARM HITS IT'S A LITTLE DIFFERENT AND YET THE LEFT ARM RESPONDS TO WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED RATHER TO WHAT'S SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN. THAT IS EXACTLY THE POINT. OKAY, NOW I GET IT. THAT'S EXACTLY THE POINT. OKAY, THIS IS GOOD. YOU SEE, YOU COULDN'T GET A MACHINE TO UNDERSTAND THIS WAY. Alda: MATT PROMISES THAT COG'S NEXT PARTY TRICK WILL DEMONSTRATE THE POINT MORE OBVIOUSLY. WE'VE GOT THE TWO ARMS AND THEY'RE MOVING COMPLETELY INDEPENDENTLY. EACH JOINT IS MOVING UP AND DOWN INDEPENDENTLY. YEAH, I DON'T SEE ANY PARTICULAR PATTERN TO THE WAY THEY'RE MOVING. NOW, WHAT WE CAN DO IS, WE CAN IF WE CONNECT THE TWO ARMS WITH THE SLINKY THEY'RE NOW COUPLED THROUGH THIS MECHANICAL COUPLING OF THE SLINKY ITSELF, RIGHT? NOW, THEY'RE REALLY NOW DOING IT JUST THE SAME WAY A LITTLE KID WOULD TO MAKE THE SLINKY GO BACK AND FORTH. AND IT FOUND THAT RHYTHM PRETTY QUICKLY IN JUST A COUPLE OF GESTURES, A COUPLE OF CYCLES. SO WHAT'S HAPPENING IS THAT AS THE WEIGHT OF THE SLINKY GOES FROM ARM TO ARM THE CONTROL AT THE JOINT IS SENSING THAT WEIGHT AND ADJUSTING HOW IT MOVES TO PRODUCE THIS MOTION. SO THE SIGNAL THAT IT'S LOOKING FOR IS THE FULL WEIGHT OF THE SLINKY. IT KNOWS IT'S GOING TO WORK WITH A SLINKY, RIGHT? UM... OR DOES IT? I DON'T LIKE SAYING IT KNOWS IT'S WORKING WITH A SLINKY... WELL, WHAT I MEAN... FINE, IT'S NOT A PERSON TO THAT EXTENT YET BUT IT'S LOOKING FOR A SIGNAL WHICH IS THE WEIGHT OF THE SLINKY. WHEN IT GETS THAT SIGNAL IT'S PROGRAMMED TO TOSS IT BACK THE OTHER WAY. EXACTLY, EXACTLY. THE ONLY MOTION IN WHICH THE TWO ARMS ARE KIND OF HAPPY IN IS ONES WHERE THEY'RE MOVING IN THIS SORT OF OUT-OF-PHASE MOTION. KIND OF HAPPY IN, HUH? YOU'RE TALKING LIKE IT'S ALIVE. I KNOW. IT'S HARD NOT TO. Alda: NOW, JUST WHEN COG IS "KIND OF HAPPY" WITH ITS PINK PLASTIC SLINKY MATT SWITCHES IT FOR A HEAVIER METAL ONE. THERE WE GO. IT FOUND IT IN, LIKE, TWO TRIES. AND LOOK, THE RHYTHM IS COMPLETELY DIFFERENT NOW. IT'S VOOM, VOOM, VOOM, VOOM. IT'S A VERY DIFFERENT RHYTHM. AND IT'S NOT PROGRAMMED-- I'M GETTING IT NOW-- IT'S NOT PROGRAMMED TO HAVE A CERTAIN RHYTHM DEPENDING ON WHAT WEIGHT SLINKY YOU PUT ON. IT FINDS THE WEIGHT OF THE SLINKY BECAUSE IT JUST RESPONDS TO WHATEVER YOU DO TO IT. EXACTLY. IT'S RESPONDING TO THE WORLD OUTSIDE AND ADJUSTING ITSELF TO THAT WORLD. YEAH, THAT'S REALLY INTERESTING. THAT IS MORE LIKE THE WAY PEOPLE WORK THAN THE WAY A LOT OF ROBOTS WORK. I THINK SO... I HOPE SO. Alda: BUT FOR COG'S CREATOR THERE'S AT LEAST ONE MAJOR SKILL PEOPLE HAVE THAT COG STILL DOESN'T. Brooks: I WISH WE HAD THE SYSTEM BEING ABLE TO UNDERSTAND OBJECTS BETTER THAN IT CAN. IT DOESN'T UNDERSTAND OBJECTS. Alda: MEANING WHAT? IT'S SITTING IN A SEA OF MOVEMENT AND FACES IT UNDERSTANDS BUT IT DOESN'T UNDERSTAND THAT... THIS IS A SLINKY AND THAT... THIS IS A SLINKY, AND THEY LOOK DIFFERENT BUT THEY'RE REALLY THE SAME SORT OF THING. IT CAN FEEL THAT WHEN YOU ATTACH THEM BUT IT CAN'T LOOK AT THEM AND FIGURE THAT OUT FOR ITSELF. WHAT WOULD THAT ENABLE YOU TO DO WHEN YOU GET THAT HURDLE CLEARED? THAT WILL ENABLE COG TO BE ABLE TO GENERALIZE FROM PREVIOUS ACTIONS TO FUTURE ACTIONS. AND THAT GENERALIZATION IS A KEY TO FURTHER DEVELOPMENT OF A CHILD. Alda: SINCE COG WAS BORN, ITS MAJOR INSPIRATION HAS BEEN THE WAY A CHILD EXPLORES ITS WORLD. BUT CHILDREN HAVE TO MASTER SOCIAL AS WELL AS PHYSICAL SKILLS. CAN ROBOTS LEARN TO BE SOCIAL? STAY TUNED. ROVING AMONG FOSSIL DINOSAURS IN PITTSBURGH IS A ROBOT THAT MAY NOT LOOK VERY HUMAN