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Scientists Create Artificial Blood
simm1701 wrote us with a BBC article link on a sort of artificial blood substitute being developed by an English university. The substance is light, can survive at room temperature, and keeps longer than real blood, allowing it to be used as a stand-in in emergency situations. "The new blood is made up of plastic molecules that have an iron atom at their core, like haemoglobin, that can carry oxygen through the body. The scientists said the artificial blood could be cheap to produce and they were looking for extra funding to develop a final prototype that would be suitable for biological testing ... A sample of the artificial blood prototype will be on display at the Science Museum in London from 22 May as part of an exhibition about the history of plastics."
There are already a few companies making artificail blood in the US. One is Biopure. All of them are waiting either for the completion of clinical trials or FDA approval. The Biopure product has already been approved in other countries.
Not all plastics cause the body to flip out as you describe it.
I'd be more concerned with where they go after the emergency is over. The spleen collects dead red blood cells... do the artifical ones "die"? What happens to the plastic then?
IANAD, so, can any harm happen with an excess of red blood cells? Maybe this will lead to a future where some could supercharge their blood to maximize oxygen carrying ability.
More Twoson than Cupertino
It's called "blood doping" and people already do it.
As for the rest of your question, IANAD either, and I'm curious about that too.
You are in a maze of twisty little relative jumps, all alike.
I've heard that they did have a problem with the body's immune system flipping out and attacking the new artificial blood cells in early testing, but since they fitted each one of them with a miniature eyepatch and peg leg they've been able to defend themselves quite effectively.
Forget different colours. What we should do is genetically modify cows to produce blood instead of milk. How awesome would that be?
Although it would give a whole new meaning to "clotted cream".
What is is all that is. Isn't that obvious?
Turn-X furiously tapped away at his keyboard, sweat dripping from his brow. Time was of the essence, and he had to get his message out NOW.
The story had just come up over the SlashWire, and unlike the usually dismissive drivel, this one caught his eye. Artificial blood. Something wasn't right here. They were going to investigate artificial blood? He thought back to his high school biology and that time he skinned his knee. Also that one program he saw on Nova. Blood...body...plastic...NO GOOD! My God, what if the body totally flipped out and went all attack mode on the blood! An emergency situation would be totally ruined!
He had to act.
Quickly he hit the reply button. The world needed to know before the scientists made an irreversible mistake. As fast as his fingers could go, he tapped out his response and hit sumbit. Now all he could do was wait. The story was fresh, so he might have caught it in time.
Yes! There it was. The Slashmods had taken notice. A reply. A mod point. But not good enough...not yet. Minutes ticked by, the story was already the second down. Would he make it in time?
Waiting...waiting...
YES! +5 moderation! He sighed. His point was made, and now the world knew. The scientists would roll back their plans and head back to the drawing board.
Turn-X would sleep well tonight.
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I attended a lecture by Ray Kurzweil, where he talked about medical breakthroughs that are on the point of revolutionizing human life.
Among other things he talked about blood substitutes, describing how the day is near when you'll be able to take a single deep breath and sit on the bottom of your pool for 15+ minutes, so efficient will be your (artificially enhanced) uptake of oxygen.
He gave a great speech. I recommend his book, "The Singularity is Near."
668: Neighbour of the Beast
They used silicon..
but they found that flat square boobs weren't fashionable so they moved to using silicone.
"If you are going through hell, keep going." - Winston Churchill
Your cat has been in training and is out looking for that damn raccoon to exact vengeance.
Nothing is so smiple that it can't be screwed up.