24 Oct 2013 ... Frank is a bionic man, built for a Smith- ... “I think this was a real honor for us and
... 1980s, pumping real blood through real veins. — unlike the ...
Kids Page
The Wenatchee World
Thursday, October 24, 2013
B5
FRANK THE ‘BIONIC MAN’ HAS ARTIFICIAL HEART, PROTOTYPE BODY PARTS BY CHAD GARLAND Cronkite News Service WASHINGTON — Frank’s skeleton looks like it was made in a bike shop, his arms and hands operate on batteries and a computer program lets him have an “almost humanlike conversation.” Frank is a bionic man, built for a Smithsonian Channel special about state-of-theart manmade body parts gathered from around the globe. Bertolt Meyer, host of the documentary, was at the National Air and Space Museum with Frank last week to tout the documentary that will air Sunday on the Smithsonian Channel. Frank will remain on display at the museum through December, when he will be dismantled and his parts returned to the organizations that donated them for the project. But the SynCardia temporary Total Artificial Heart that pumps plastic blood through his plastic veins was made in Tucson, Ariz., and it is the only one of Frank’s internal organs that is more than a prototype. “All the other bits that we see here, like the artificial pancreas here, the first prototype of an artificial kidney, spleen and lung — they’re all still prototypes and still have a very long way to go,” said Meyer. “Whereas the heart is already being used in patients.” Michael Garippa, chief executive officer of Tucson-based SynCardia Systems Inc., which manufactured Frank’s heart, said the opportunity to work with the Smithsonian was “too good to say no to.” “I think this was a real honor for us and a great chance for technology that’s largely been kept under a rock to get a lot of extra attention,” Garippa said. Meyer, a social psychologist at the University of Zurich in Switzerland, said the documentary was “first and foremost an educational project,” meant to show viewers the latest developments in the field. But it was also an education for him. “I was absolutely stunned,” he said of the
“Have we gotten to the point where mechanical pumps can replace a heart transplant? It’s close.” DR. DANIEL TANG Surgeon at the Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center
Olivier Douliery/Abaca Press
A first-ever walking, talking bionic man stands on display at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., last Friday. The model is a 6-foot-tall robot built entirely from bionic body parts and implantable synthetic organs. progress in prosthetics and artificial body parts. Meyer, who was born without the lower part of his left arm and uses a prosthetic himself, said he hopes the program will also spark a conversation about what continuing development in this area could mean for society. “What if an artificial heart can buy us more lifespan — what will a society like that
look like?” Meyer asked. “These (questions) kind of alter the ethical implications of this technology.” While some of the developments may seem like science fiction, much of it is closer to science fact, said Dr. Daniel Tang, a surgeon at the Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center, who is featured in the documentary. “Have we gotten to the point where mechanical pumps can replace a heart transplant?” Tang asked. “It’s close.” The Total Artificial Heart is used to temporarily replace a human heart for a patient awaiting a transplant, sometimes for years, Tang said. Though it has been around largely in the same form since 1981, he said, the manmade heart like that in Frank is a “miracle of medicine” at a time when there are not enough human hearts available for transplant. “The amount of donor hearts that are available is far overshadowed by the number of people on the wait list,” Tang said. “That kind of discrepancy only continues to grow.” The SynCardia heart has been implanted in about 1,200 patients worldwide since the 1980s, pumping real blood through real veins — unlike the plastic blood it pumps for Frank. Garippa said it is the only device approved in the U.S., Canada and the European Union for treatment of heart failure involving both ventricles. Tang sees a day when artificial organs may be made of synthetic tissue instead of metal and plastic. “It’s an amazing time we’re living in,” Tang said.
© 2013 by Vicki Whiting, Editor Jeff Schinkel, Graphics Vol. 29, No. 45
THE BODY ECLECTIC “Frank” is not a complete person — he is missing key parts like a brain, digestive system and skin — but he brings together in one “body” more than a dozen manmade parts. In addition to the SynCardia temporary Total Artificial Heart, Frank’s parts list includes: ◆ Skull implants printed with a 3D printer. ◆ The Argus II system that turns video into electrical impulses the brain can “see.” ◆ NeoSpeech software and a chatbot computer program that turns text into speech and lets Frank have “almost human-like conversation.” ◆ A cochlear implant that turns sound into electrical impulses. ◆ A 3D-printed synthetic windpipe that can use a patient’s stem cells to prevent rejection. ◆ An artificial lung that filters air and oxygenate blood. ◆ An artificial pancreas that helps regulate blood-sugar in diabetics without insulin injections. ◆ A blood substitute made of plastic molecules with an iron atom at their core that carries oxygen, but does not fully replace human blood. ◆ A manmade spleen, still under development, that filters toxins from the bloodstream. ◆ Battery-powered prosthetic arms. ◆ Touch Bionic i-Limb prosthetic hands. ◆ Prosthetic hips that rotate up to 130 degrees. ◆ Knees that adjust to different environments with the help of gyroscopes, accelerometers and microprocessors. ◆ BiOM ankles invented by a rockclimbing biophysicist and engineer. ◆ The Rex exoskeleton that helps Frank “walk” and may one day replace wheelchairs.
START Each row of squares below has the letters of a word that can be found on this page. Read today’s Kid Scoop page and then try to unscramble them all.
CROOL FINISH
Plants make food in a process called photosynthesis. During summer, plants take water up from their roots to their leaves. They absorb carbon dioxide from the air. These combine to make chlorophyll which makes plant leaves green.
Find the answer in the fall leaf border! Start here. Then read every other letter as you move clockwise around the border.
Photosynthesis slows in fall as winter approaches. Trees and plants live off their stored food. The green chlorophyll disappears leaving red, orange and yellow leaves. The dry, brittle leaves soon drop from trees with the help of crisp autumn breezes.
All of the leaves at righ right have an identi identical twin – excep except one. Can you find it?
Standards Link: Reading Comprehension: Follow simple written directions.
BRANOC LEAVES WATER SYLLABLES CARBON SEASON WINTER SCENE BORDER CRISP ACORN GREEN DISAPPEAR ROOTS FALL DAYS
Find the words in the puzzle. Then look for each word in this week’s Kid Scoop stories and activities.
Y S E L B A L L Y S A T A L A R S V E R D O S A S E C H A E
Find words in the newspaper that have the same number of syllables as the fall words below. Paste each word on the picture with the matching number of syllables.
GRONE A
G O O F V T A N C T R R N A C A R B O N E N E C S W G E R I E L G P S I R C N W
T HU S L I GN
N R A E P P A S I D Standards Link: Letter sequencing. Recognized identical words. Skim and scan reading. Recall spelling patterns.
Standards Link: Visual Discrimination: Find similarities and differences in common objects.
Fall Syllables
T WE R I N
S Y S E R E D R O B
Autumn Find five words in the newspaper that describe the autumn season. Paste the words onto a sheet of paper. Write a sentence using each word. Decorate your paper with images of fall.
BRASOB
GYONEX
AVE LS E
Standards Link: Grammar: Identify and use adjectives in writing. Sentence Structure: Write simple and complex complete sentences.
Leaf
Harvested Jack o’ lantern Standards Link: Reading Comprehension; Follow simple written directions.
GENACH
Acorn
Standards Link: Decoding and Word Recognition: Decode regular multi-syllabic words.
Would you like to “eat” like a plant –meaning have the ability to turn sunshine, water and CO2 into food through photosynthesis? Why or why not?
MUAUN T
Standards Link: Spelling: Spell grade-level words correctly.
A Special Thanks to these Newspaper p In Education Partners!
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