Fiction to fact

Research ‘dream team’ assembles at UA

Fans of science fiction are often treated to tales about miraculous technological advances that would restore not only the functionality of a lost human limb, but also its lost tactile sensations.

It’s an old movie trope, with roots going back nearly 100 years to Fritz Lang’s groundbreaking silent film, “Metropolis” all the way through the 1970s’

“Six Million Dollar

Man” (what a bargain!) and various other sci-fi franchises.

Researchers bound for the University of Arkansas’ Fayetteville campus will try to eliminate the fictional aspects of such stories.

With the help of a $194 million grant from the Walton Family Foundation, the UA created the Institute for Integrative and Innovative Research and assembled a faculty with some prestigious credentials.

Last week the school announced that Ranu Jung, an inventor and researcher, has been selected as the institute’s first director. She’ll be joined by four other researchers, including her husband, James Abbas, to work on developing a new kind of prosthetic that, according to your daily newspaper, would be able to give users a sense of feel or touch.

The group being assembled has worked together for many years on projects dealing with prosthetic technology and neural engineering — a field of study that uses engineering techniques to improve or replace neural systems. One of the potential applications of such study is to find ways to interface the brain with mechanical devices.

Think about that for a minute. We live in a world where technological breakthroughs are received with a yawn. But restoring the sense of touch through a mechanical device is an astounding concept.

According to our story last week, the group has previously worked in developing their research with military veterans who have lost limbs. They’re now bringing that work to the UA campus. A new facility in which to conduct the work is being planned. It has a budget of $114 million. We told you Steve Austin was a bargain back in the ’70s.

To be clear, the Walton grant will jump start research at the UA in other disciplines as well: data science, food systems, materials science and metabolic disease studies, as well as integrative neuroscience.

The creation of this institute is quite the academic feather in the cap of the University of Arkansas. This kind of ground-breaking and potentially transformative research is a primary function of land-grant institutions, but this strikes us as a pretty big deal.

The granting of degrees, the teaching of marketable job skills and the promotion of the liberal arts garner a university more attention than the incredibly complex work of scientific research. But it’s the kind of work that, if successful, can change lives and benefit untold numbers of people. And, who knows what other related discoveries will result?