One of the first examples in The Medici Effect of the innovative power of intersectional teams is a ground breaking experiment that was conducted at Brown University in 2002; a team of researchers "eavesdropped” signals in a monkey’s brain so that it could control a cursor on a computer screen with its mind. They succeeded because the researchers behind the project came from a number of different scientific fields and this was the result of a deliberate effort to create an intersection of disciplines.

Now a team of scientists at the University of Pittsburgh has taken this one step further – their monkey eats with a multi-jointed brain-controlled prosthetic limb.

And again the breakthrough is a made at an intersection of disciplines: the researchers that were needed to make this possible represent neurobiology, bioengineering, cognition, regenerative medicine, robotics, physical medicine and rehabilitation. (I feel sorry for the monkey though…)

/Kristian Ribberström