Bionic | featured news

The metal on Zac Vawter bionic leg gleamed as he climbed 103 floors of Chicago's iconic Willis Tower, becoming the first person ever to complete the task wearing a mind-controlled prosthetic limb.

Zac Vawter, fitted with an experimental "bionic" leg, looks out onto the Ledge at the Willis Tower, Thursd

Zac Vawter considers himself a test pilot. After losing his right leg in a motorcycle accident, the 31-year-old software engineer signed up to become a research subject, helping to test a trailblazing prosthetic leg that's controlled by his thoughts.

Behold the "bionic dog." (View video, below.) At just five weeks old, Naki'o was abandoned by his owners and wandered into an icy puddle, getting his paws stuck in the frigid water. All four frostbit paws had to be amputated, but in a "heartwarming" twist, the malnourished red heeler puppy was rescued by an animal shelter where, a veterinary technician raised funds to fit him with two prosthetic hind legs. Naki'o took to the prosthetics so "enthusiastically" that the organization Orthopets threw in the other two prosthetics for free. "Naki'o can now not only chase after a ball with other dogs," says vet tech Christie Tomlinson, as quoted by Incredible Features, "but he can beat them to the catch!"

As 20-year-old Hailey Daniswicz flexes muscles in her thigh, electrodes attached to her leg instruct a computer avatar to flex its knee and ankle -- parts of Hailey's leg that have been missing since 2005.