Touch Bionics, developer of the world’s first commercially available bionic hand, announced that its i-LIMB Hand has been recognized by TIME magazine as one of the Top 50 inventions of 2008.

"We are delighted to have been identified by TIME as one of the inventions of the year, a real honor for any innovative company," says Stuart Mead, Touch Bionics CEO. "To have been placed ahead of incredible stories like the Mars Rover, MIT’s MDS robot and Berkeley’s invisibility cloak is a tremendous achievement."

Placing 14th on the recently published list, the i-LIMB Hand was alongside projects such as the Large Hadron Collider and the world’s fastest supercomputer.

The i-LIMB Hand is a prosthetic device that looks and acts like a real human hand with five individually powered digits. Since its launch, more than 400 patients worldwide have been fitted for it.