DRAGONFLY PLAYS POSSUM TO AVOID SEX
When a female dragonfly carries sperm from one
male, the insect is no longer interested in mating.
So if another suitor comes along, she pretends to
be dead. This was discovered by Swiss
evolutionary biology PhD student
Rassim Khelifa, as he studied
the insects in the Alps.Soft robotic pump
helps the heart beat
Scientists have imitated the special musculature of the heart,
designing a sleeve which can keep failing hearts alive.
MEDICINE Worldwide, 23 million+
people are suffering from heart failure,
meaning that the cardiac muscle can-
not pump enough oxidized blood about
the body, threatening people’s lives.
In many cases, doctors help patients
by inserting a pump into the heart, but
the surgery could cause problems.
When the artificial pump gets in contact
with the blood, infection may develop,
causing the blood to clot. So, scientists
from the US Harvard University and the
Boston Children’s Hospital have
developed a computerized roboticpump, which can be placed on the
outside of the heart without getting in
contact with the blood.
The scientists were inspired by
nature’s own design, making the sleeve
of a soft material with sections that copy
the two outermost muscle layers of the
heart. By pumping air in and sucking it
out of small, flexible tubes around the
heart, the sleeve can alternately
contract around the organ and loosen
its grip. The invention is intended to
help patients, who are waiting for a
donor heart or are in rehabilitation.The soft sleeve has proved efficient
in pig experiments, making hearts
recover 88 % of their pumping
power following heart failure.ELLEN ROCHE/ HARVARD UNIVERSITY, SHUTTERSTOCK & KEN IKEDASHUTTERSTOCK
INFLATED
TUBETwo layers of tubes
imitate the heart
Scientists copy the special
musculature of the heart by lining
the organ with two layers of
flexible, inflated tubes.THE HEART IS
MADE OF MUSCLES
1 The heart includes two layers of
musc-les: an interior,
trans-verse layer and
an exterior, inclining
one. The musculature,
which automatically
contracts, is nothing
like what exists in the
rest of the body.AIR CAUSES
MOTION
2Scientists have
developed two
layers of transverse and
inclining, flexible tubes,
which hug the heart.
The tubes are connected
to an air pump outside
the body, which
alternately pumps air
in and produces a
vaccuum. The sleeve
can be computer-
controlled and will
adjust to any heart.THE PUMP IS
GLUED ON
3 The pump is wrapped
around the heart, so
it can be adjusted to
individual patients.
It is attached with
thread and special
biological glue.