This picture shows the pioneering tiny titanium heart, which weighs just 11grams and is the smallest artificial heart in the world, that has helped save the life of a 16-month-old boy.
Surgeons implanted the device, a miniscule pump, to keep the toddler alive until a donor organ was found bridging a new medical milestone.
The boy had the operation at Rome’s Bambino Gesu hospital last month and had the implant for 13 days before he had a transplant. He is now doing well.
The baby was suffering from dilated myocardiopathy, a heart muscle disease which normally causes stretched or enlarged fibres of the heart. The disease gradually makes the heart weaker, stopping its ability to pump blood effectively.
‘This is a milestone,’ surgeon Antonio Amodeo said.
He added that while the device was now used as bridge leading to a transplant, in the future it could be permanent.
Before the implant, the child also had a serious infection around a mechanical pump that had been fitted earlier to support the function of his natural heart.
‘From a surgical point of view, this was not really difficult. The only difficulty that we met is that the child was operated on several times before,’ he said.
The tiny titanium pump weighs 11 grams and can handle a blood flow of 1.5 litres a minute. An artificial heart for adults weighs 900 grams.
3-D printer helps save dying baby
When he was 6 weeks old, Kaiba Gionfriddo lay flat on a restaurant table, his skin turning blue. He had stopped breathing.
His father, Bryan, was furiously pumping his chest, trying to get air into his son’s lungs.
Within 30 minutes, Kaiba was admitted to a local hospital. Doctors concluded that he had probably breathed food or liquid into his lungs and eventually released him.
But two days later, it happened again. It was the beginning of an ordeal for the Youngstown, Ohio, family that continued day after agonizing day.
“They had to do CPR on him every day,” said April Gionfriddo, Kaiba’s mother, who later found out her son had a rare obstruction in his lungs called bronchial malacia. “I didn’t think he was going to leave the hospital alive.”
With hopes dimming that Kaiba would survive, doctors tried the medical equivalent of a “Hail Mary” pass. Using an experimental technique never before tried on a human, they created a splint made out of biological material that effectively carved a path through Kaiba’s blocked airway.
What makes this a medical feat straight out of science fiction: The splint was created on a three-dimensional printer.
Trip to Space with Leonardo DiCaprio Sells for $1.5 Million
Actor Leonardo DiCaprio plans to fly to space on Virgin Galactic’s new commercial spaceliner, along with the winning bidder in a charity auction at the Cannes film festival, according to news reports.
The chance to ride with DiCaprio sold for 1.2 million Euros ($1.5 million) at the amfAR Cinema Against AIDS charity Thursday night (May 23), according to the Hollywood Reporter. The prize was listed as a “once-in-a-lifetime trip to space with a mystery guest” in the auction booklet, and the mystery guest’s identity as DiCaprio was not announced until after the sale. The event took place at the Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc during the annual film festival on the French Riviera.
Regular tickets aboard Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo sell for $250,000, and already about 550 people have paid in part or in full, despite the fact that the vehicle hasn’t yet flown to space. The first manned flight to the edge of space is expected by the end of this year, though, and commercial passenger trips could begin in 2014
Time to fundraise
Dinoflagellate Protoperidinium latistriatum
SEM by Fiona ScottArmored Dinoflagellate Protoperidinium pellucidum - can produce dangerous toxins that lead to so-called red tides.
Census of Marine Life E&O (http://bit.ly/181nxUd)
NIH: National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
Planarians are bilaterally symmetric metazoans that possess almost unlimited regenerative capacities and that have been a classic regeneration model for over a century. Planarians have cephalic ganglia (the brain), two ventral nerve cords, and many sensory neurons. All cells of the nervous system can be regenerated following injuries of myriad types, including complete decapitation. Therefore, robust mechanisms for production of new neuron types in the proper numbers and patterns exist. Planarian regeneration involves a population of adult pluripotent stem cells (the neoblasts), which become involved in the regeneration of the entire nervous system.
i needed this a lot a lot a lot
(Source: tondalayo)
WHEN MY WORK COMPUTER CRASHES WITHOUT AUTOSAVE
credit: epicshenanigansattheirfinest
The Outer Space Treaty
Formally known as the Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies, the Outer Space Treaty is basically humankind’s first foundation of international space law. It came about in the 1960s during both the Cold War and the space race, when the United States and the Soviet Union agreed to refrain from introducing weapons of mass destruction into outer space. The treaty was put into force in 1967 after signatures from the US, the UK and the Soviet Union, and 102 countries have signed the treaty to date. You can read it in full here. At the moment, it mainly limits the use of celestial bodies (such as the Moon) to peaceful purposes: no country can place weapons of mass destruction on them, nor establish military bases or conduct any kind of military manoeuvres. Outer space, the treaty states, shall be free for exploration and use by all countries, for the benefit and interest of the world, and so no country can own a celestial body or claim it as a resource. Space is “not subject to national appropriation by claim of sovereignty,” because it is the Common heritage of mankind, just as astronauts “shall be regarded as the envoys of mankind.” These are beautiful concepts, like a child’s ideas are beautiful—mankind is still young, and the treaty is a remarkable milestone as we begin to open our eyes to the universe.
Hummingbird Metabolism
While in flight, hummingbirds have the highest metabolisms of all vertebrates, in order to support their rapid beating of their wings (up to 80 times per second!). Their heart rate can reach 1260 beats per minute.
At night, the bird reduces its metabolism, slowing their heartbeats to 50-180 beats per minute to reduce their need for food.
To provide themselves with energy, hummingbirds consume more their own weight in nectar every day. They select flower species which have more sugar in their nectar.
As the bird burns through its food so fast, they are constantly hours away from starving to death, storing just enough energy to last through the night. They must continually eat to survive.
Danny Perez Photography on Flickr
