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Article: Atom-heart father; Medical technology.(Future artificial hearts might be nuclear-powered)(Brief Article)
- Article from:
- The Economist (US)
- Article date:
- September 22, 2001
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2001 Economist Newspaper Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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An atomic heart may be just around the corner--if you can afford it
A NUCLEAR-POWERED steam engine sounds wacky enough. That such a device might be used to pump blood in an artificial heart is wackier still. Yet Claudio Filippone, a nuclear scientist at the University of Maryland, is a serious man--and he thinks it can be done. He has just filed a patent application for an implantable pump that could run for 18 years without external power or recharging, and would, he hopes, eliminate the need for traditional heart transplants.
Strictly, the device is not a steam engine, because the working fluid is not water. However, the principle is the same. A ...