bionic cat
My mother was watching television news, and I happened to see part of a short piece about a "bionic" cat. I went looking for more about it on the net and looked at a few articles.
This Mail Online article is extensive, and has a pre-operative X-ray: "Oscar the bionic cat: Pioneering surgery gives poor moggie TWO false back legs" - Liz Thomas, Mail Online, today
This BBC article is pretty good: "A cat from Jersey has shot to fame as the 'bionic cat'" - Ryan Morrison, BBC Jersey, today
This AP article has a great title, and good content: "Bionic British cat gets faux paws" - Maria Cheng, Associated Press, today
I recalled a distinction between the terms "prosthetic" and "bionic", defining the former as a replacement and the latter as an improvement. I was puzzled by the fact that none of the articles I read about the cat mentioned that distinction, so I did a cursory web search for the distinction - and I didn't find it. Maybe that distinction was in a science fiction novel, as vocabulary that had developed in the setting of the novel.
However, I did find an actual distinction: "prosthetic" means a replacement, while "bionic" is a broader term that includes artificial replacements but also includes technological devices that mimic elements of living things.
This Mail Online article is extensive, and has a pre-operative X-ray: "Oscar the bionic cat: Pioneering surgery gives poor moggie TWO false back legs" - Liz Thomas, Mail Online, today
This BBC article is pretty good: "A cat from Jersey has shot to fame as the 'bionic cat'" - Ryan Morrison, BBC Jersey, today
This AP article has a great title, and good content: "Bionic British cat gets faux paws" - Maria Cheng, Associated Press, today
I recalled a distinction between the terms "prosthetic" and "bionic", defining the former as a replacement and the latter as an improvement. I was puzzled by the fact that none of the articles I read about the cat mentioned that distinction, so I did a cursory web search for the distinction - and I didn't find it. Maybe that distinction was in a science fiction novel, as vocabulary that had developed in the setting of the novel.
However, I did find an actual distinction: "prosthetic" means a replacement, while "bionic" is a broader term that includes artificial replacements but also includes technological devices that mimic elements of living things.