TechKnow

Heart in a box

We investigate a new device that allows hearts and other organs to live outside the body.

Heart transplants are always a race against time. When a donor heart becomes available, medical teams must move quickly; the organ is removed and preserved by placing it on ice, and the heart must arrive at the recipient’s hospital within six hours, or it may become unusable.

But now, a new medical device is keeping hearts warm and beating during transport, something that could be a major breakthrough in transplant history.

On this edition of TechKnow, Phil Torres looks at the innovation that keeps a heart beating outside the body.

In keeping with the intersection of hardware and humanity, Lindsay Moran goes to New York, where the city is rolling out six fully electric cars for a year-long test-run. Driven by veteran cab drivers, they are part of the city’s ambitious plan to convert its taxi fleet to electric cars.

And finally, Kosta Grammatis goes to Colorado to meet Easton LaChappelle, a 17-year-old self-taught inventor who used a 3-D printer to create a prosthetic, robotic arm. The teenager is gaining attention around the world for the creation of the low-cost prosthetic that interfaces with the human brain.

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