"Prosthetics worn by disabled sprinters confer no speed advantage, scientists have found. If anything, they may reduce the top speed a runner can achieve. The research supports the case made by the South African Paralympic runner Oscar Pistorius, who uses flexible carbon-fibre blades in races. Pistorius has long argued that he should be allowed to compete alongside able-bodied athletes in races, but athletics authorities banned him from doing so in last year's Olympic games, claiming that his blades gave him an unfair advantage over able-bodied athletes. But the new study by Alena Grabowski at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology suggests the authorities may have come to the wrong conclusion." - Steven Perez from Bookmarklet