The brains behind a blade runner

If it sounds far-fetched for a man without lower legs to become one of the fastest runners on the planet, how about typing by just thinking the words or staying sporty well into old age?

Such prospects motivate work at Ossur, the Icelandic group behind the prosthetics that vaulted double-amputee Oscar Pistorius into the limelight with his bid to compete in the Beijing Olympics.

Besides producing carefully adapted artificial limbs to change the lives of disabled people, the world's only major listed prosthetics maker is also looking ahead to the day when robotics and neuroscience can change those of many more.