The story started as a feature about advances in the prosthetic limb industry in Massachusetts, told using a young man who lost his left arm in a motorcycle accident. However, the reporters found that advances in upper extremity prosthetics are making major leaps (more than it has in centuries) thanks to an influx of federal funding, as a result of the influx of young veterans returning home with upper limb loss.
Read "Winning the arms race: A centuries old quest to build a better arm"
See the contest questionnaire in which the reporter writes about how this story was written.