All Mark Pollock Blogs
More of an explorer than ever before
In preparation for the South Pole Race I learnt a lot about Shackleton, Scott and Amundsen, the polar explorers who carved those first trails into the ice in Antarctica. Their stories inspired and excited me, but I never felt like an explorer during the race. They were the first, the pioneers – that was their […]
Get down on your knees and pray for Shackleton
“For scientific discovery give me Scott; for speed and efficiency of travel give me Amundsen; but when disaster strikes and all hope is gone, get down on your knees and pray for Shackleton.” Sir Raymond Priestly, Antarctic Explorer and Geologist. For the first two weeks in April, I sat in a classroom in the Harvard […]
A year in robotic legs – starting the analysis
This time last year I took my first few faltering steps in a revolutionary new set of robotic legs from ekso bionics. I wrote a blog the day after that first experience and said: “I was scared. Not of the walking or chances of falling. Rather I was scared that my blindness would stop me […]
Building collaborations with leading scientists & foundations
As part of the Fail Better exhibition at Science Gallery Dublin, award winning journalist, Jonathan McCrea interviewed Mark and his scientific collaborators from the Frasier Institute in Kentucky and Ekso Bionics in San Francisco as well as spinal research foundations Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation in the US and Wings for Life in Europe.
Stimulating Voluntary Movement at UCLA
Professor Yury Gerasimenko of the Pavlov Institute electrically stimulates Mark’s spinal cord during some baseline testing at UCLA. And, for the first time since his accident 3 years earlier, Mark voluntarily pulled his knee to his chest. Watch at https://www.markpollock.com/stimulating-voluntary-movement-at-ucla/