Pacemakers are designed to compensate for a condition known as bradycardia, where the heart beats too slowly to provide sufficient amounts of oxygen to the body. And to allow patients with pacemakers installed to continue healthy pursuits like exercise, a company called Boston Scientific is introducing a new line with a feature called RightRate technology that monitors respiration and adjusts the pacing accordingly.
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Researchers at the University of care working on a pacemaker that can harness the power of the beating heart. If successful, the promising pacemaker will be battery-less and can possibly last a lifetime. As you know, pacemakers are devices that regulate the human heartbeat through electrodes and currents. These require batteries, which explains why pacemaker users require open heart surgery every seven years. (more…)
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Jumbled Text Messages Could Be Indicative Of A Stroke, LifeBot 5 Telemedicine Tool,
Deep-brain stimulation— the practice of implanting a pacemaker-like shocker deep in the recesses of your dome—have been used for treating conditions like Parkinson’s or even depression, but now they’ve got a new mountain to climb: Alzheimer’s. More »
If you’re an maniacal villain, please stop reading now. Apparently pacemaker transmitters can be reverse-engineered to deliver deadly shocks. More »
There’s a whole sea of jellyfish out there ready to sting indiscriminately. So, why do we keep trying to make them? Scientists from Harvard and Caltech have a pretty good reason for creating fake jellies — they hope to mend broken hearts by adapting their ‘pumping’ style of movement. Much like our own vital organ, the creatures are a mass of muscle adept at shifting fluid, meaning the research has several medical applications, such as bioengineered pacemakers for busted tickers. In creating the Medusoids, the team used a silicon scaffold coated in functional rat cardiac tissue, copying the muscle layout of a real jellyfish as best they could. When immersed in salt water and treated to bursts of current, the cells contract and cause the silicon sheet to move in a way eerily similar to the real thing. Next step for the team? An autonomous version that can move and potentially feed without their influence, of course. And, after seeing the little swimmers in action, we’ve certainly got palpitations. See what we mean after the break.
Continue reading Fake jellyfish made from rat cells have a place in our hearts (video)
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Fake jellyfish made from rat cells have a place in our hearts (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 23 Jul 2012 14:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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