All posts tagged: Organ

New Scientist recommends Organ Speak, a deep dive into our organs by Giulia Enders

New Scientist recommends Organ Speak, a deep dive into our organs by Giulia Enders

Published by skeptic

Hymn, a Damien Hirst sculpture, reveals layers of our organs Chris Cooper-Smith/Alamy Organ SpeakGiulia Enders(Illustrated by Jill Enders, and translated by Jamie Bulloch), Hachette (UK); HarperCollins (US) Work, home, politics, TV sagas, juicy celebrity gossip – who doesn’t get caught up in the drama of everyday life? But there may be an equally compelling and fascinating story unfolding every second of every day inside the squishy bodies doing all that living. There, our organs do the quiet yet incredible work of providing the oxygen, energy and resilience we need to experience the joys and navigate the hardships of life. By gaining deeper appreciation of our intricate machinery, honed over millennia of human evolution, we can find fresh inspiration to lead healthier, more meaningful lives, argues Giulia Enders in her new book Organ Speak: What it really means to listen to our bodies. Enders, who is also a medical doctor and a researcher specialising in the digestive system, is best known for her bestselling book, Gut. This is an amusing account of the intestines – her …

Embryos made without sperm or eggs reveal why many pregnancies fail

Embryos made without sperm or eggs reveal why many pregnancies fail

Published by skeptic

Embryo models closely resemble early human embryos SCIEPRO/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY/Alamy Inside a lab in Vienna, cells are dividing to form a hollow sphere. Although the fragile ball has all the characteristics of an early human embryo, it isn’t quite what it seems. It didn’t, in fact, begin with an egg meeting a sperm. Instead, it was created entirely in the lab. The very first days of pregnancy have long been an enigma. Scientists are unable to peer inside the uterus during pregnancy, meaning we know little about why so many fail. This is now beginning to change, thanks to embryo models created from stem cells, which are lifting the lid on one of the great mysteries of human biology. In the five years since early human embryo models known as blastoids were first created in several labs – including the one in Vienna – researchers have dramatically advanced our understanding of the early days of life. This is already leading to improvements for in vitro fertilisation (IVF) and treatments for serious conditions that occur during …

Previously irrelevant organ could be key to longer life and better cancer outcomes

Previously irrelevant organ could be key to longer life and better cancer outcomes

Published by Jenni Sidey

For something so small, the thymus has had an oddly quiet life in medicine. It sits behind the sternum and helps train T cells, the immune system’s frontline recognizers. In childhood, that job is essential. Later, as the thymus shrinks and gives way to fatty tissue, it has often been treated as yesterday’s organ, useful early on, then mostly spent. Two new studies suggest that view may have missed something important. Researchers at Mass General Brigham report that adults with healthier-looking thymuses on CT scans were more likely to live longer and less likely to die from heart disease or develop lung cancer. In a separate study, cancer patients with better thymic health also tended to do better on immunotherapy, one of modern oncology’s most important treatments. Both papers were published in Nature, and together they make a case that the adult thymus may still be doing more work than many doctors assumed. Overview of real-world cohorts and study design. (CREDIT: Nature) “The thymus has been overlooked for decades and may be a missing piece …

Organ donor’s skin patch helped patient discover new lung was being rejected | UK News

Organ donor’s skin patch helped patient discover new lung was being rejected | UK News

Published by Sam Flores

A skin patch from an organ donor helped a patient discover his body was rejecting his new lung, leading him to get swifter treatment. Darren White was one of the first lung transplant patients to have a patch from their donor grafted onto the skin. The 53-year-old was given steroids when tests showed his body was rejecting his lung three months after the operation. Over a year later, he is doing well and said he can now be “more of a dad” to his toddler, Daniel, because he can walk and take him to the park. Experts leading the Sentinel trial said the skin flap, which is grafted on to patients’ forearms at the same time of their lung transplant, acts as a window. Image: The 53-year-old and his son Daniel. Pic: PA Scientists believe the skin reacts earlier than other organs and is more visible, meaning medics can treat rejection as soon as a rash appears in order to cut the risk of permanent damage. So far 10 patients have received 10cm by 3cm …

A Billionaire-Backed Startup Wants to Grow ‘Organ Sacks’ to Replace Animal Testing

A Billionaire-Backed Startup Wants to Grow ‘Organ Sacks’ to Replace Animal Testing

Published by skeptic

As the Trump administration phases out the use of animal experimentation across the federal government, a biotech startup has a bold idea for an alternative to animal testing: nonsentient “organ sacks.” Bay Area-based R3 Bio has been quietly pitching the idea to investors and in industry publications as a way to replace lab animals without the ethical issues that come with living organisms. That’s because these structures would contain all of the typical organs—except a brain, rendering them unable to think or feel pain. The company’s long-term goal, cofounder Alice Gilman says, is to make human versions that could be used as a source of tissues and organs for people who need them. For Immortal Dragons, a Singapore-based longevity fund that’s invested in R3, the idea of replacement is a core strategy for human longevity. “We think replacement is probably better than repair when it comes to treating diseases or regulating the aging process in the human body,” says CEO Boyang Wang. “If we can create a nonsentient, headless bodyoid for a human being, that …

This pipe organ is playing a single, nonstop song until 2640

This pipe organ is playing a single, nonstop song until 2640

Published by Jenni Sidey

Get the Popular Science daily newsletter💡 Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. On September 5, 2001, a concert started inside a medieval church–and it continues to this day. If all goes as planned, the performance won’t finish for another 616 years. One may expect a composition like John Cage’s ORGAN²/ASLSP to encompass thousands, if not millions of pages of musical notation—but as its name implies, it’s the exact opposite. “ASLSP” is Cage’s shortening of “As Slow As Possible,” and so far, the custom-built, electric pipe organ has only issued nine chords. The current one started in February 2024, while the next chord won’t play until August 5, 2026. At that point, an A4 chord will ring out for 911 more days. John Cage died in 1992 at the age of 79, but both fans and detractors have continued discussing and performing his work. After discovering the I Ching in 1951, Cage incorporated the Chinese divination system’s philosophy into his art for the rest of his life, particularly on topics like sound, …

Bioethicist: Let surgeons kill patients during organ harvesting

Bioethicist: Let surgeons kill patients during organ harvesting

Published by Jenni Sidey

This article, Journal of Medical Ethics: Let Organ Harvesting Surgeons Kill Patients | National Review, is republished from National Review with the permission of the author. The “dead donor rule” (DDR) is a legal and ethical mandate that requires vital organ donors to be truly dead before their body parts are procured. A corollary to the rule holds that people cannot be killed for their organs. The DDR promotes trust in the system and protects the vulnerable — but is flexible enough to permit living donations of one kidney and parts of a liver from altruistic donors. Utilitarian bioethicists have long argued against the DDR and its corollary based on the notion that killing those who are dying or want to donate will relieve the suffering of people who want to live and need an organ. And here we go again. The Journal of Medical Ethics — out of Oxford — has published a long and complicated piece by Ohio bioethicist Lawrence J. Masek arguing that patients who want to donate should be able to be killed during — or …

New pipe organ signals rebirth for Episcopal parish after fire, flood and ‘plague’

New pipe organ signals rebirth for Episcopal parish after fire, flood and ‘plague’

Published by Sam Flores

NEW YORK (RNS) — The organ arrived from Utah on a warm August morning. Greeted by holy water, incense and slide whistles, it came in a 53-foot-long truck that was double-parked on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. The Church of the Epiphany’s priests clambered up on the truck’s loading dock, tossed on stoles and blessed the long-awaited instrument. Their prayers were punctuated by the sound of confetti cannons shot off by about 30 parishioners. Then, for hours, children, adults and elders into their 90s hoisted pipes and boxes up flights of stairs to the church’s second-floor sanctuary. The biggest spectacle was the entrance of the 600-pound organ console, which parishioners and organ builders spent over 30 minutes wrangling up an external staircase. “What has been the most beautiful part of this organ is the way it has brought our entire community together,” Denise Cruz, a  vestry member, speech pathologist and mother of two, told RNS. “It was all hands on deck.” Even with reports of declining worship attendance in the U.S. — and an overall reduction …

Success! Isle of Man joins UK and Crown Dependencies with opt-out organ donation – Humanists UK

Success! Isle of Man joins UK and Crown Dependencies with opt-out organ donation – Humanists UK

Published by Sam Flores

A new law in the Isle of Man has introduced an opt-out system for organ donation, bringing it in line with the UK and Crown Dependencies. Coming into force on 1 January 2026, the Human Tissue and Organ Donation Act aims to increase the number of organs available for donation by introducing deemed consent. That is, adults living in the Isle of Man will generally be presumed to have wanted to donate their organs after death unless they record a decision to opt out. Humanists UK has long advocated for opt-out systems for organ donation and celebrates this landmark success. Opt-out systems have already been introduced in Wales in 2015, Jersey in 2019, England in 2020, Scotland in 2021, and Northern Ireland and Guernsey in 2023. The Isle of Man was the last remaining jurisdiction of the UK and Crown Dependencies to bring such a law into force. Until now, the Isle of Man operated an opt-in system of organ donation. This meant potential organ donors had to sign up to an organ donor register. …