Yes, that means saying goodbye to Aimee Mullins. She was with us for three essays, all of which dealt with issues of prostheses from unexpected perspectives, that few of us will soon forget. In case you missed any, have a look:

• Is Choosing a Prosthesis So Different than Picking a Pair of Glasses?
• Racing on Carbon Fiber Legs: How Abled Should We Be?
• Normal Was Never Cool: Inception of Perception

Of course, what we really tried to explore is the notion that "prosthetics" aren't just carbon fiber limbs. Is a smartphone with a Bluetooth headset anything but? Using technology to augment ourselves physically and mentally is now a regular part of our agenda, and will be more and more integral to our selves in the coming decades, from implantable computers to programming our body's biological robots to do our bidding.

A big thanks to Aimee Mullins, Marc Hodosh at TEDMED and all of the other contributors and experts who joined us this week:

• Robot expert and author Daniel H. Wilson - Me and My Exoskeleton: The Trick to Super Strength
• Michael Specter, author and science writer at The New Yorker - Synthetic Biology: Why Not Pursuing Crazy Biotech Is Dangerous
• Author Anna Jane Grossman - Psychic Powers, Cochlear Implants, and My Bionic Ex-Boyfriend
• Dr. Debby Herbenick, author and sexologist at The Kinsey Institute and Indiana University - Becoming a Sexual Cyborg (NSFW)

And in case all of that wasn't enough, to read all of the stories from This Cyborg Life, use this link.

Meet Ged Galvin, a 55-year-old chap from Barnsley, south Yorkshire, who is currently in possession of a very special remote control. A remote control that, when engaged, controls Galvin's bowels and allows him to go to the bathroom with dignity. Dignity that was, sadly, robbed from him in the wake of a horrific motorcycle accident that nearly killed him.

At first, the operation that saved his life left him unable to control his bowels. That meant a colostomy bag and all the inconvenience and potential embarrassment that comes with such an arrangement. But then in stepped more doctors. They had a plan. They could rebuild him, make his sphincter stronger. And that's exactly what they did.

Using muscle from Galvin's knee, the doctors wrapped his sphincter muscle and attached a number of electrodes to the muscle nerves. Enter the remote control, which Galvin compares to a chubby cellphone, and bowel function was restored. It's as easy as an on/off switch, he said in an interview with the Telegraph, "just like switching on the TV."

Britain is calling him the man with the bionic bottom, and he's just fine with that. After all, he could be dead. This is better, and while he's not as beautiful as guest editor Aimee Mullins, he's a great fit for This Cyborg Life, and I wish him well. [Telegraph via Geekologie]

The chip, encased in titanium to withstand the tortures of the human body for 10 years, sticks to the outside of your eyeball. The eye's lens still seems to be used, but light strikes implanted electrodes that in turn cause the chip to fire image information directly into the optic nerve.

Users will still need to wear glasses, but not for the reasons you'd think. The glasses house a power source to transmit necessary energy to the sight chip wirelessly.

Researchers admit that the footage won't be a 1:1 replacement for normal vision, especially at first when trial participants will help refine MIT's algorithms. But the device should theoretically enable someone to navigate a room and even recognize faces, making social tasks quite a bit easier. [Wired via Newlaunches]

The RAPHaEL (Robotic Air Powered Hand with Elastic Ligaments) is the brilliant tool from the minds of Virginia Tech. Like you see in the name, air drives the hand's movement without costly or bulky motors/actuators. The system requires just 60 psi, which when guided by microcontroller commands, allows the hand to open and close with precision down to the individual finger.

As you see in the clip, this design can just as easily grasp a can as a light bulb. Plus, it makes a cool pssht sound whenever you grab something. [VirginiaTech via Engadget]

This video explains the phenomenon better than I can, but essentially when a person sees a fake limb touched while they are touched, they begin to feel the fake hand being touched even when they are not. Incorporating this natural phenomenon into bionic limbs isn't necessarily the ideal long run solution for amputees, but as a short term workaround to painful, ineffective surgeries, it's sure worth some level of consideration. [NewScientist]

For people with retinal diseases like acute macular degeneration or retinitis pigmentosa, vision is impared because the retina's photo-sensing cells become unreceptive to light; however, the nerves leading from the eye to the brain (the most Monster cables) are generally left in good shape. Implants like this one stimulate the sleepy retina cells with electric current, which is generated from the wirelessly-powered coil surrounding the iris and processed by a microcontroller in the tiny titanium case that sits on the outside of the eyeball.

This iteration is the first to have components small enough to be mostly external, which is less complicated from a bio-rejection standpoint. So to go where lasers can't, hopefully Eye 3.0 tech like this will pick up the slack. [Technology Review]

[DailyMail via Best Week Ever via Jezebel]

Obviously, a system like this could prove invaluable for military personnel, laborers, hikers and fat, lazy geeks that don't want their heart to explode while they walk to the kitchen for a Snickers and a Red Bull. Unfortunately, no pricing information or availability dates have been announced, but you can pre-order one now from the Berkley Bionics website. [Berkley Bionics via New Scientist]

Now, the technology has its limitations; it won't give sight to those born blind or who suffer glaucoma, nor will it offer perfect vision. Only for those who previously had sight, and a semi-functional optical nerve, is this possible. The idea is that it will give the blind a general sense of their surroundings so they can function on a basic level. But researchers do hope to improve the technology so that users can recognize things like facial detail and expressions in the future. [Boston Herald via Crunch Gear]

The foot has a rotating ankle joint attached to an artificial shin and a board-like surface for the part that touches the ground. We're always excited when we hear about advances in prosthetics, because one of our greatest fears is losing a limb in a horrific blogging accident. Don't laugh. It could happen. – Jason Chen

Bionic feet [New Scientist via Oh Gizmo]