Tag: Lungs

Scientists Are 3D Printing Miniature Human Organs To Test COVID-19 Drugs

Scientists are conducting preliminary tests of COVID-19 drugs using 3D printed human organs, eliminating the need to perform tests on animals, or, of course, humans. The Week reports: For example, Anthony Atala, the director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine, and his team are using 3-D printers to create tiny replicas of human organs, including miniature lungs and colons,…

Statisticians Warn That AI Is Still Not Ready To Diagnose COVID-19

Discover magazine reports:
For years, many artificial intelligence enthusiasts and researchers have promised that machine learning will change modern medicine. Thousands of algorithms have been developed to diagnose conditions like cancer, heart disease and psychiatric disorders. Now, algorithms are being trained to detect COVID-19 by recognizing patterns in CT scans and X-ray images of the lungs. Many of these models aim to…

Damaged human lungs revived for transplant by connecting them to a pig

Donated human lungs that are too damaged to use for transplant can be returned to a usable state by connecting them to a pig’s blood supply for 24 hours Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2248535-damaged-human-lungs-revived-for-transplant-by-connecting-them-to-a-pig/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…

Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro Tests Positive for Covid-19 After Months of Dismissing the Seriousness of the Virus

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has tested positive for Covid-19, following months of downplaying the virus. From a report: Bolsonaro himself announced the result, speaking on Brazilian TV channels Tuesday. “Everyone knew that it would reach a considerable part of the population sooner or later. It was positive for me,” he said, referring to the Covid-19 test he took Monday. “On Sunday,…

Controversial Theory Claims Forests Don’t Just Make Rain — They Make Wind

sciencehabit writes from a report via Science Magazine: With their ability to soak up carbon dioxide and breathe out oxygen, the world’s great forests are often referred to as the planet’s lungs. But Anastassia Makarieva, a theorist at the Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute in Russia, says they are its beating heart, too. They recycle vast amounts of moisture into the air…

Scientists Engineer One Protein To Fight Cancer and Regenerate Neurons

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Phys.Org: Our lungs, bones, blood vessels and other major organs are made up of cells, and one way our bodies keep us healthy is by using protein messengers known as ligands that bind to receptors on the surfaces of cells to regulate our biological processes. When those messages get garbled, it can make us…

Breathing Habits Are Related To Physical and Mental Health

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Wall Street Journal, written by James Nestor: Breathing is a missing pillar of health, and our attention to it is long overdue. Most of us misunderstand breathing. We see it as passive, something that we just do. Breathe, live; stop breathing, die. But breathing is not that simple and binary. How we breathe…

Are you more likely to die of covid-19 if you live in a polluted area?

A number of studies have found a link between air pollution and increased covid-19 deaths, but it is not clear why. Both attack the lungs, but it could just be that more people live in polluted areas Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2241778-are-you-more-likely-to-die-of-covid-19-if-you-live-in-a-polluted-area/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…

How coronavirus drifts through the air in microscopic droplets

Aerosols are the tiny particles of liquid and material that float around in our environment. When they come from an infected person, they may be a significant source of coronavirus transmission. The science of infectious aerosols. Source: https://earthsky.org/human-world/coronavirus-microscopic-droplets-infectious-aerosols…