Podcasts

Handy Third Thumb. Health Check - BBC, July 2022 Claudia Hammond is at the Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition and speaks to Professor Tamar Makin and designer Dani Clode to find out whether a Third Thumb might be handy.

Tamar Makin on brain plasticity. UCL Brain Stories, November 2021 In this podcast, Tamar discusses her research on brain plasticity, artificial limbs, and the potential for human augmentation.

Is it possible to enhance and rewire the adult brain? The Guardian Science Weekly Podcast, March 2018
In this podcast, Tamar discusses the possibilities for enhancing brain plasticity in the later stages of life.

Talks & Videos

Testing the Third Thumb, Cambridge University, (May, 2024) Designer Dani Clode talks about how testing technology on a diverse range of people is essential for ensuring new technologies are inclusive and can work for everyone.

Upgrade Your Hand With This Extra Thumb, Great Big Story, (December, 2023)
The Great Big Story team travels to Cambridge to learn more about designer Dani Clode, Professor Tamar Makin and the Third Thumb, exploring the potential applications of the third thumb by getting a crew member to test it out.

ELSC Seminar Series: Prof. Tamar Makin, ELSC, (November, 2021) Professor Makin discusses neurocognitive considerations for the future of human augmentation and prosthetics.

Dani Clode and Tamar Makin: A perspective on motor augmentation from neuroscience and design, ICRA, (July, 2021) Presentation by Dani Clode and Tamar Makin (University College London, UK) at the Workshop on Integrating Multidisciplinary Approaches to Advance Physical Human-Robot Interaction at ICRA 2021.

Phantom Pain, BBC News, (Feb 2019)

Blogs & Feature Articles

Can a third thumb make me the first robotically enhanced reporter?, The Times, June 2024
The Times’s science reporter tries out what it is like to have an extra thumb, and feels like he has developed (small) superpowers

Prosthetic hands are easier to control using unrelated muscles, New Scientist, April 2024
Clare Wilson reports on Hunter Schoen’s Nat Human Behaviour paper about biomimetric versus arbitrary motor control strategies for bionic hand skill learning

The Brain Isn’t as Adaptable as Some Neuroscientists Claim, Scientific American, November 2023
Professor Tamar Makin and John Krakauer explain that the idea of treating neurological disorders by marshalling vast unused neural reserves is more wishful thinking than reality

An Extra Robotic Thumb Quickly Changes How The Brain Represents And Uses Its Biological Hand, Forbes, July 2021 Prof Gabriel Silva reports our recent Science Robotics paper about neural changes driven by using The Third Thumb

New Theory of Phantom Pain Could Mean End for Illusory Treatments, Technology Networks, February 2020 Ruairi J Mackenzie reports from a recent talk from Tamar on new theories on phantom limb pain and how they inform clinical approaches 

News

Why you (and everyone else) could soon be wearing this ‘third thumb’, BBC Science Focus, June 2024
BBC Science Focus covers the Science Robotics study on the useability of the third thumb at the Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition.

Robotic Third Thumb Supercharges Your Hand, and Your Productivity, Forbes, June 2024
Leslie Katz covers the Science Robotics study on the useability of the third thumb at the Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition.

Human Augmentation with Robotic Parts is At Hand, The Guardian, March 2023
An overview of the Third Thumb project and possible implications for the future.

In a digital era, we’ll all be prosthetic fingers and thumbs, The Times, March 2023
An overview of the Third Thumb project and possible implications for the future.

Humans could soon be wearing tentacles, thumbs and wings, The Telegraph, March 2023
An overview of the Third Thumb project and possible implications for the future.

What Painting With Your Feet Does to Your Brain, New York Times, Sept 2019
Our new findings about toe maps in foot artists discussed on the New York Times