Author: Lala Trute

The Confederate vessel H.L. Hunley made history by becoming the first combat submarine to sink a Union ship during the late stages of the civil war.  The Confederate army had built the 40-foot-long, 8 crewmen submarine as part of a counter effort to break the smothering blockade of the Union navy. The sub’s captain Charles Pickering managed to sink the USS Housatonic on February 17, 1864, with a submersible pole attached to a 135 lb barrel bomb, that was rammed into the Housatonic’s hull just below the waterline, causing a tremendous explosion. The Union warship went down in just five minutes but came to rest upright...

Every year about 30,000 babies in the United States are born prior to  26 weeks out of the normal 37-week gestation process, meaning they are critically premature.  In preemies born prior to 24 weeks, only about 50% survive, and those who survive are likely to face long-term medical complications.   Medical researchers are working on developing an artificial womb filled with lab-made amniotic fluid combined with an artificial placenta, that could help premature babies get to a healthy size and finish developing their organs before being born. Toward that goal, a research team from the University of Western Australia,...

Ten to 15 percent of couples in the United States are infertile and many are desperate to have children.  That’s why a successful study a few months ago from researchers at Northwestern University‘s Feinberg School of Medicine and McCormick School of Engineering on bioprinting ovaries was so exciting. The team led by Teresa Woodruff, reproductive scientist and director of the Women’s Health Research Institute at Feinberg, and Ramille Shah, assistant professor of materials science and engineering at McCormick and of surgery at Feinberg, not only 3D printed ovaries, but implanted one of them in a mouse that then gave birth to healthy babies.  The...