| Description |
1 online resource (streaming video file) (28 min. 18 sec.) ; 169700625 bytes |
| Summary |
Bio-printing organs; Cleaning up space junk; Party drugs to treat depression; Coming to grips with a really big number.ORGAN BIO-PRINTINGAt Wake Forest School of Medicine in America's North Carolina researchers are growing artificial body parts from the cells of their patients. For those in need of organ transplants, growing your own organs in a lab means no rejection problems and no waiting around for donors. There's a long way to go before most organs can be grown, but for one young man, life is very different following the transplant of a new bladder, grown in the lab from his own cells. Remarkably, one method for automating the process is just like printing, only with human cells. Graham Phillips travels to the USA and visits the labs leading the way in this exciting field of regenerative medicineSPACE JUNKFifty-five years ago, the space age dawned with the launch of Sputnik 1, the world's first satellite. It fell from orbit after 3 months and burned up upon re-entering Earth's atmosphere. But, for most space craft, this is not the case. The proliferation of debris orbiting the Earth, primarily jettisoned rocket and satellite components, is a pressing problem for spacecraft and satellites. There are significant costs in avoiding collisions with space junk. Derek Muller visits the Swiss Space Centre to meet the scientists building the first satellite specially designed to clean up space debris.KETAMINEYou may know Ketamine as a party drug - its street name is Special K. The recreational use of Ketamine is illegal although today it's used in veterinary and human medicine. Now, researchers are experimenting with Ketamine as an alternative to conventional medications for depression sufferers. Conventional medications manipulate serotonin or dopamine levels. But Ketamine works on the glutamate system which causes rapid signalling of memory and information processing. Maryanne Demasi investigates whether it is possible that a party drug could be the next big thing in treating depression.GRAHAM'S NUMBERWhat's the biggest number you can think of? Infinity? Sure, but what about the biggest finite number? Thirty years ago, mathematician Ron Graham came across a really big number as the solution to a certain problem that rewrote the record books - unimaginably larger than a googol, googolplex and even Skewes' number. Catalyst mathematician, Simon Pampena, does his best to convey just how big Graham's number is |
| Event |
Broadcast 2012-10-25 at 20:00:00 |
| Notes |
Classification: NC |
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Drug utilization.
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Drugs -- Testing.
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Ketamine.
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Regenerative medicine.
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Streaming video
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Phillips, Graham, host
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Demasi, Maryanne, reporter
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Hobbs, Bernie, reporter
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Muller, Derek, reporter
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Pampena, Simon, reporter
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Atala, Anthony, contributor
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Graham, Ron, contributor
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Lai, Roslyn, contributor
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Leyden, Jock, contributor
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Loo, Colleen, contributor
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Masella, Luke, contributor
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Nicollier, Claude, contributor
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Presnell, Sharon, contributor
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Richard, Muriel, contributor
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Shea, Herbert, contributor
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