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Amazing Medical Conditions: Maple Syrup Urine Disorder
by Josh Clark | December 13, 2011
If you were to be diagnosed with the condition known as maple syrup urine disease you may think that you’ve hit the medical jackpot: All the free maple syrup you can drink at your disposal almost anytime. But you would be wrong, friend. Despite its quasi-pleasant name, MSUD — that actually is the medical term [...]
I grew up loving haunted houses and mad science laboratories, so I’m not sure I can fully express out INTO the idea of vat-grown organs I really am. It’s pretty much the most mad sciencey thing imaginable, short of actually creating a monster or sewing Ray Milland’s head onto Rosey Grier’s body. And on a realistic note, sure, we’d all like to grow our crops of spare guts to replace our failing organs. But when will it be possible? As Julie and I explore in this episode of Stuff to Blow Your Mind, the day is fast approaching.
In the United States, the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) keeps a database of transplant candidates waiting for organs. The statistics are daunting: Demand for organs has outstripped the available supply, meaning that patients must wait for months or years before receiving an organ. According to LifeShare (via our article), each passing day brings [...]
How Artificial Hearts Work – they have come a long way
by Marshall Brain | August 3, 2010
There was a time, back in the 1980s, when artificial hearts were big news. There was daily, front-page media attention around implantable artificial hearts. In 1982, Barney Clark received an artificial heart designed by Robert Jarvik and installed by Dr. William DeVries. Clark lasted almost four months before dying. (The Jarvik heart still exists and [...]
You Asked:
When a brain transplant is performed, does the patient lose his or her memories? — Abby, Shoreham, N.Y.
Marshall Brain Answers:
We are still a few years away from the first human brain transplant or head transplant, although there have been experiments in animals. The following videos are not for the weak-stomached, but they do show that experiments have been done in sustaining severed brains and heads, and even transplanting heads, for several decades…
When we hear about “blanks” in a gun, the word that comes to mind is “harmless”. Yes a blank makes a loud bang, but no bullet comes out so blanks are harmless.
But people have actually been killed by blanks, as described in this video about the death of John Erik Hexum
This is a fascinating two-minute video that shows a new technique for lung transplants. The lungs to be transplanted are removed, perfused, repaired and exercised outside the body to get them ready for transplantation. The advantage, from the HowStuffWorks perspective, is that we get to see how lungs look, and how they inhale and exhale, [...]
In this TED video, Anthony Atala talks about the state of the art in growing new organs for people who need them. He talks about the importance and the potential of the research: “Every 30 seconds a patient dies from diseases that could be treated with tissue replacement.” Then he demonstrates the technology that is [...]
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