New Dork Post: July 2012

Sunday, July 15, 2012

1972

1. The first scientific hand-held calculator (HP-35) is introduced (price $395).

2. Bob Douglas becomes the first African American elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame.

3.The Godfather is released in cinemas in the United States.

4. Watergate scandal: Five White House operatives are arrested for burglarizing the offices of the Democratic National Committee.

5. Comedian George Carlin is arrested by Milwaukee police for public obscenity, for reciting his "Seven Words You Can Never Say On Television" at Summerfest.

6. The first episode of The Price Is Right is hosted on CBS by Bob Barker.

7. Bobby Fischer defeats Boris Spassky in a chess match in Reykjavík, Iceland, becoming the first American world chess champion.

8. The first female FBI agents are hired.

9. Atari kicks off the first generation of video games with the release of their seminal arcade version of Pong, the first game to achieve commercial success.

10. December 11 – Apollo 17 lands on the Moon.

High Five: Future Stripper Names!

1. Spontaneity

2. Hypnosis

3. Downtown Money

4. Horoscope

5. Daiquiri

Sunday, July 8, 2012

Early designs of total artificial hearts

In 1967, Dr. Kolff left Cleveland Clinic to start the Division of Artificial Organs at the University of Utah and pursue his work on the artificial heart.

In 1973, a calf named Tony survived for 30 days on an early Kolff heart.
In 1975, a bull named Burk survived 90 days on the artificial heart.
In 1976, a calf named Abebe lived for 184 days on the Jarvik 5 artificial heart.
In 1981, a calf named Alfred Lord Tennyson lived for 268 days on the Jarvik 5.

Recent developments

Total artificial heart

In June 1996, a 46-year-old Chinese American Mr. Yao ST received the world's first total artificial heart implantation done by Dr. Jeng Wei at Cheng-Hsin General Hospital in Taiwan. This pneumatic Phoenix-7 Total Artificial Heart was manufactured by a dentist Kelvin K Cheng and his colleagues at the Taiwan TAH Research Center in Tainan, Taiwan. With this experimental artificial heart, the patient's BP was maintained at 90-100/40-55 mmHg and cardiac output at 4.2-5.8 L/min. After 15 days of bridging, Mr. Yao received combined heart and kidney transplantation. As of September 2011, he is still very well and is currently living in San Francisco.