Science & technology | Embodying the future

Why prosthetic limbs need not look like real ones

Designers are experimenting with tentacles, spikes and third thumbs

Kelly Knox, a model, poses with a prosthetic tentacle extending from her left elbow.
Photograph: Suede Baby

In a photoshoot Kelly Knox—a British model and disability-rights advocate—poses with a prosthetic limb unlike any other. Ms Knox was born with her left arm missing from the elbow down. From the point her arm terminates, dozens of vertebrae-like structures extend to form a long, sinuous tentacle.

This article appeared in the Science & technology section of the print edition under the headline “Weird and wonderful”

From the February 3rd 2024 edition

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