That's Fit

If you thought creating bionic humans was as possible as the world being saved by Lindsay Wagner and Lee Majors, think again (about the bionic humans part. Despite what Tom Cruise vehemently claims, actors cannot save the world).

Men's Health reports that several major universities are making major progress in this arena, and here are just a few examples of what we can expect to see in the not-so-distant future...

Arms. Researchers from the University of Michigan are currently developing a prosthetic limb that will actually allow users to feel sensation.

Brain. Brown University are hoping to help disabled people regain some of their motor function with brain implants and neural circuitry, designed to "re-wire" their brains.

Kidney. The folks at the University of Michigan are quite busy these days. In addition to their work with prosthetic arms, they have also created a "bio-artifical" kidney, which uses the patient's own cells in the device to aid the immune system.

Losing weight is tough enough, but keeping it off -- now that can be really tough. Statistics show that 90-95 percent of overweight people who lose weight will regain it all (and in some cases, even more) within five years.

So, what's a person to do to stay slim? Work out harder, say researchers from Brown University. This may seem like a no-brainer at first, but what their study found was that duration during exercise does not matter as much as intensity when it comes to maintaining weight loss over time.

The good news is that you won't have to spend as long in the gym; the data shows that around 25 minutes per day is perfect. The bad news is that you won't be spending long, leisurely walks while reading a book on the treadmill anymore, because you're going to have to kick your workout into high gear.

Think about when you were a teen (assuming that you're not one now). Think about what your day was like as you woke up for school, frantically headed to either catch the bus or bum a ride off of your one friend who had a car. Granted, that car looked like something Fred Sanford should have been driving, but it was still a car. Anyway, as I was saying, remember how tough it sometimes was to make the 8am bell for school. You would rush, rush, rush -- only to then barely make it to homeroom before the teacher marked you absent. Whew ... that was close.

Then, at around 9:20 or so, something started to happen. You seemed to be working on a two-to-three second delay, you were inattentive -- but not really on purpose, and your early rising from bed finally began to take its toll. If you were like most teenagers (especially today), you probably felt this way because you skipped breakfast.

Worst of all, in efforts to stop your stomach from making that embarrassing moaning sound (the one that can only mean one of two things: 1 - You're hungry, or 2 - You have to go the bathroom and you're holding it with all your might. Of course the people around you who hear it always assume that it's number two -- no pun intended), you grabbed a candy bar or bag of potato chips from the vending machine, or maybe even some tater tots from the cafeteria.