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About Ben Apel

Washington-raised, Boston-based writer and marketing professional, intrigued by crowd behavior, in love with exercise induced endorphins, disgusted by urban sprawl, perplexed by politics, motivated by extremes and intensely focused on avoiding a life that could, in any way, be deemed ‘mediocre’. Try and keep up.

Maillardet’s Automaton Continues to Fascinate

By Ben Apel | Published: March 16, 2012
Courtesy of The Franklin Institute

Today, we’re surrounded by some pretty awesome gadgets designed to make our human lives easier. And robots are at the cutting edge of this gadgetry. From war zones, disasters, operating rooms and outer space, to inside our own homes, robots are fast becoming indispensable. But where does our fascination for robots come from and when were the first robots invented? …

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On Valentine’s Day: A Brief History of the Mechanical Heart

By Ben Apel | Published: February 13, 2012
http://www.flickr.com/photos/signote/

Love, the unmapped genome of human emotion. It’s right up there with dark matter and whatever it is that makes peanut butter so delicious. We may never be able to reverse-engineer a concept so intangible. But today, we can do a pretty good job of reconstructing the mechanics of the human heart. The first mechanical heart is also one of …

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Myomo Neuro-Robotic Arm Brace a Powerful Rehab Tool

By Ben Apel | Published: January 9, 2012
Myomo

Find a prevalent problem and solve it – any MBA worth their tuition will enthusiastically volunteer this as the surest way to start a successful company. What started in Woodie Flowers’ lab at MIT as research into prosthetics, became a solution for stroke victims struggling with hemiparesis. Named the mPower 1000, the Myomo (My Own Motion) neuro-robotic arm brace uses …

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