Word: hemoglobin
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...public has regarded receiving blood as risky. Even though blood is now screened more thoroughly than ever, scientists too are concerned about the vulnerability of the nation's blood supply, and this has led to a search for ways to circumvent the donor system. One approach is synthetic hemoglobin, the oxygen-carrying component of red blood cells; another is a drug to increase the production of red cells. A third is increasingly being used in elective surgery: autologous transfusion, in which patients are given blood that they had donated and banked for themselves...
...hemoglobin substitute is still some years away, and synthetic red- cell expanders are only in the test stages. There are also drawbacks to laying in a private stock of blood for a transfusion that may never be necessary. Three pints are typically requested for surgery, and drawing, processing and storing them can be expensive -- about $200 a pint per year. The donor must also pay the cost of transporting the blood to where it is needed -- an especially difficult task if the patient is involved in an automobile accident miles from his blood bank...
Still, it is often impossible to retrieve a patient's blood, particularly in trauma cases in which the victim of a shooting or highway accident has lost an enormous amount at the scene. Since blood is not always readily available in these circumstances, researchers are seeking a synthetic hemoglobin for emergency...
...space, where they will form clouds of gas and dust that can coalesce into new stars and planets. Indeed, most of the elements abundant on earth today, except hydrogen, were cooked up in some star that became a supernova. Says Woosley: "The calcium in our bones, the iron in hemoglobin and the oxygen we all breathe came from explosions like this...
...structure and reactive properties of molecules has aided other research not only in chemistry, but also in biology, and physics Wilson's research, for instance, was among the information that led to the discovers of DNA structure. More recently, he has helped clarify the structure of such molecules as hemoglobin. Herschbach says...