Bionic man: Soldier who lost arm in grenade attack becomes first Brit to use pioneering prosthetic technology

* Corporal uses pectoral and back muscles to work new arm

A soldier who lost his right arm in a grenade attack has been fitted with a bionic limb - and he is getting to grips with it fast.

Corporal Andrew Garthwaite, believed to be the first of the British military amputees to be fitted with the pioneering prosthetic, lost the limb in September in a rocket-propelled grenade attack while serving in Afghanistan.

The attack killed another soldier but Garthwaite, 23, of the Queen's Royal Lancers, was lucky by comparison.

 Slow and steady: The soldier is getting to grips with the pioneering limb. 'It's great,' says Garthwaite

 Careful: Garthwaite is so adept with his new arm, which he controls by flexing his back and pectoral muscles, that he can pour water into a cup without spilling any.Pioneering: Corporal Andrew Garthwaite lost his right arm after a grenade attack in September while he was serving in Afghanistan

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15 Funny Homer Simpon Motivational Posters

I simply love the Simpsons! And you will love these 15 motivational posters by non other than Homer Simpson himself! Funny :D

The amazing 2,000ft natural 'firefall' that brightens up Yosemite National ParkThe amazing 2,000ft natural 'firefall' that brightens up Yosemite National Park

You would be forgiven for thinking these incredible images show lava cascading down the side of a volcano.

Instead, they show a 'firefall', one of nature's rarest phenomena.

Due to a trick of the light, the orange liquid in the photos is actually water pouring over the side of the 2,000ft-high Horsetail Falls in Yosemite National Park, California.

For only a few days each year - normally around February - the elements are perfect for the last of the day's sun rays to strike the waterfall, creating a magical luminance.

The national park, which spans over 3,000km, attracts over 3.5million visitors a year - and this is one of the highlights.


At about 5.30pm local time, when the sun begins to set, the shadows lengthen, and the rays hit the top of the rock face, a miraculous transformation takes place.

 For only a few days each year - normally around February - the elements are perfect for the last of the day's sun rays to strike the waterfall

Unique natural phenomenon: For a few days each year a 'firefall' takes place over the 2,000ft-high Horsetail Falls in California's Yosemite National Park

Biggest ever solar storm could cause power cuts which last for MONTHS

* Earth is overdue a solar storm as the sun enters its most active period

The world is overdue a ferocious 'space storm' that could knock out communications satellites, ground aircraft and trigger blackouts - causing hundreds of billions of pounds of damage, scientists say.

Astronomers today warned that mankind is now more vulnerable to a major solar storm than at any time in history - and that the planet should prepare for a global Katrina-style disaster.

A massive eruption of the sun would save waves of radiation and charged particles to Earth, damaging the satellite systems used for synchronising computers, airline navigation and phone networks.

Communications satellites would be knocked out by a solar storm, causing widespread chaos on Earth and hundreds of billions of pounds of damage

Imminent: The world got a taster of the sun's explosive power last week with the strongest solar eruption in five years (white flash, centre) sent a torrent of charged plasma hurtling towards the world. Scientists believe we are overdue a ferocious solar storm

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The clever cubes tiny enough to hold in your hand that could create a cell phone network that actually WORKS

Ugly mobile phone masts which blight the landscape could soon disappear forever, replaced by tiny cubes which you can hold in your hand.

The pioneering technology could also create a seamless wireless network and eliminate internet 'black spots'.

Designers at Bell Labs, New Jersey have developed a tiny antenna which transmits signals without the need for huge unsightly towers.

A thing of the past? Unsightly mobile phone masts could be replaced by tiny cubes to create smaller networks

Hand-held revolution: Wim Sweldens, president of Alcatel-Lucent's wireless division, demonstrates the lightRadio cube, a tiny mobile phone antenna which could replace unsightly masts

The prosthetic arm that amputees control with their MIND

Most modern prosthetic limbs can be considered high tech.

But Jesse Sullivan has a particularly clever prosthetic arm - it doesn't work using a motor, but is controlled by his mind.

Scientists have found a way to make the thought controlled limb by connecting the nerves from Mr Sullivan's stump to muscles in his chest.

It also gives him a wider range of movements than previously possible.

Breakthough: Wires are connected from the bionic arm to muscles in the chest

Advanced: The new technology has enabled patients to have wider movement then previously possible

Research: Scientists based their work on the principle that nerves remain healthy for some time after amputation

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Soft car bonnet that folds inwards on impact could save thousands of lives

* Pioneering design reduces head trauma 'by 60 per cent'

A 'soft' car bonnet which folds inwards on impact could save thousands of lives every year on Britain's roads, it was claimed today.

Scientists are developing an 'aluminium mechanical energy absorber' within a sheet of metal which collapses inwards.

The new technology is expected to substantially reduce the number of cyclists and pedestrians killed or seriously injured in road collisions.

World's Oddest Mothers

Mother of Most Surviving Children From a Single Birth (8 babies)

Known as the "Octomom" by the media, Nadya Denise Doud-Suleman Gutierrez came to international attention after she gave birth to octuplets in January 2009. Her set of octuplets are only the second to be born alive in the US and they quickly surpassed the previous worldwide survival rate for a complete set of octuplets set by the Chukwu octuplets in 1998. Suleman, an unemployed single mother, already had other six young children at home at the time, and along with the octuplets, they were all conceived via in-vitro fertilization, which has led to a lot of controversy

World's Youngest Mother (5 years old)

Meet Lina Medina: she's the youngest confirmed mother in medical history, giving birth at the age of five years, seven months and 21 days. Born in Ticrapo, Peru, Medina was brought to a hospital by her parents at the age of five years due to increasing abdominal size. She was originally thought to have had a tumor, but her doctors determined she was in her seventh month of pregnancy. Dr. Gerardo Lozada took her to Lima, Peru, prior to the surgery to have other specialists confirm that Medina was pregnant.

After 257 days in a 12ft-wide spacecraft two astronauts step out onto 'Mars'... a car park outside a Moscow block of flats

* The European / Chinese project is measuring the effects confinement and stress have on interplanetary travel

After 257 days in a locked steel capsule, six researchers on a 520-day mock flight to Mars have finally ‘landed’ on the Red Planet.

The all-male crew - three Russians, a Chinese, a Frenchman and an Italian-Colombian - has been inside a windowless capsule at a Moscow research centre since June.

Today their simulated flight arrived at Mars and two crew members, Italian Diego Urbina and Russian Alexander Smoleyevsky, emerged from their spacecraft to walk on the 'surface' of Mars.

It was a big step for the six-man team locked up for two-thirds of a year, but a relatively small step

Launch: The volunteers prepare to enter the Mars500 simulation spacecraft in June

Has Indian inventor REALLY made a Back to the Future style flying car?

It sounds like something out of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang or even Back to the Future - but one inventor claims to made the flying car a reality.

While it could well help solve the issue of traffic gridlock which plagues many cities, an airborn version of the converted hatchback looks to be some time away from the production line.

Made out of an seemingly-ordinary 800cc Maruti car, it has rotor blades affixed to the roof with extended wheelarches creating a 'vacuum section', and has been one of the star attractions at the Aero India 2011 air show in Bangalore.

Futuristic: Vishwanath's company is part-named after the DeLorean sports car of the 1980s, famously used as a time machine in Hollywood's Back To The Future, starring Christopher Lloyd (left) and Michael J Fox.Flying high?: The 'flying Maruti' is made from a seemingly-ordinary 800cc Maruti car, with rotor blades afixed to the roof and extended wheelarches covering a 'vacuum section'