Body-hackers: the people who turn themselves into cyborgs

Not content with their version 1.0 bodies, biohackers are installing USB drives in their fingertips, giving themselves night-vision eyedrops and growing third ears on their arms (that can go online). Welcome to the world of DIY cyborgs

When the director of a research institute called the Alternate Anatomies laboratory says he's got something up his sleeve, you can safely assume it's not just a figure of speech.

For Professor Stelarc, an Australian performance artist whose previous party tricks have included using a robotic third arm and letting his muscles be remotely controlled by a computer, growing a human ear on his arm was the obvious next step. Now, he wants to connect it to the internet.