Tools are body parts; body parts are tools

Marshall McLuhan^[i] was right. A new study published in the journal Cell Biology provides the first direct proof of a longheld notion among technologists: tools fundamentally alter the way we perceive our own bodies. 

"To be accurate in doing an action with a tool, you need to make the tool become a part of your body," lead researchers Lucilla Cardinali and Claude Bernard told The Scientist. 

The implications of this idea are staggering, and it is something every high school student needs to learn. Using tools intelligently and appropriately is essential to a balanced and successful life. That begins with an understanding of our relationship with tools and how they alter our way of seeing the world.

For more on this idea, start with the science here. Then delve into the idea here.

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[i] McLuhan wrote that tools are extensions of the human body. A detailed investigation of McLuhan's inspiration for this idea can be found in the footnotes for Richard Cavell's McLuhan in Space. More on the McLuhan here.