Tweet Your Blood Cells With New iPhone Adaptor. One of our favorite Kickstarter projects stopped by the Gadget Lab a few days ago. The SkyLight is an adaptor that connects your smartphone to a microscope, then allows you to share the photos and videos you capture. From their project description:
The SkyLight’s universal compatibility allows previously owned technology (microscopes) to be upgraded to the digital age with the use of a widely available technology (smartphones) – good for global health, science classes, and anyone else!
(Source: kickstarter, via medicalschool)
Jan 29, 2012
Jan 29, 2012Malaria: A Daunting Enemy
Malaria infects 300 million to 500 million people every year, according to the World Health Organization, causing debilitating cycles of pain, fever, coma, and even death.
At least 1 million people die of malaria every year, most of them young children in impoverished sub-Saharan Africa.
In the United States, a National Malaria Eradication Program spawned in mid-1947 by a forerunner of today’s U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was declared a success in 1951.
A global eradication effort by the CDC and World Health Organization was launched in 1955 but abandoned by 1978. It was rendered untenable by widespread resistance to DDT and other mosquito-targeting insecticides, the emergence of resistance to antimalarial drugs, and a host of other obstacles—notably, wars and massive population shifts, tropical mosquito-harboring environments, weak or non-existent health systems, lack of governmental and community support, and a lack of sustained funding from donor countries.
Jan 29, 2012K: Spirochaeta- These bacteria are gram-negative and highly motile with unique morphology: long, spiraled, and tightly coiled with endoflagella within the outer plasma membrane. Some are free-living decomposers, while others are human pathogens. Ex: Treponema pallidum (the cause of syphilis) and Borrelia burgdorferi (cause of Lyme disease).
Facts about blood and it’s components
- There are four types of transfusable products that can be derived from blood: red cells, platelets, plasma and cryoprecipitate. Typically, two or three of these are produced from a pint of donated whole blood – hence each donation can help save up to three lives.
- Donors can give either whole blood or specific blood components only. The process of donating specific blood components – red cells, plasma or platelets – is called apheresis.
- One transfusion dose of platelets can be obtained through one apheresis donation of platelets or by combining the platelets derived from five whole blood donations.
- Most donated red blood cells must be used within 42 days of collection.
- Donated platelets must be used within five days of collection – new donations are constantly needed.
- Plasma and cryoprecipitate are stored in frozen state and can be used for up to one year after collection.
- Healthy bone marrow makes a constant supply of red cells, plasma and platelets. The body will replenish the elements given during a blood donation – some in a matter of hours and others in a matter of weeks.
(via medicalschool)
Jan 29, 2012
Douaa (left) and Ihsane (right) are pictured at the Avicenne hospital in Rabat, Morocco on November 2, 2007. Born on October 17 with one brain, the twins were not separated.
(via medicalschool)
Jan 29, 2012