Preserving ‘nearly dead’ organs

November 4, 2022
by RJ Hamster

BLURRING THE LINE BETWEEN
LIFE AND DEATH

Friday, November 4, 2022

In today’s newsletter, we cover researchers saving ‘nearly dead’ organs to ease a transplant crisis; consider who will pay for the compounding cost of climate change; discover the mysteries still swirling around King Tut; swim in a lake filled with millions of jellyfish … and meet the other King Tut buried in the U.S. capital.

PHOTOGRAPHS BY MAX AGUILERA-HELLWEG

What is dead and what is living?

Scientists are figuring out how to rescue and resurrect mostly dead organs for transplant. They have to—more than 6,000 patients in the U.S. alone are waiting for a transplant. These preservation strategies may not only ease the organ shortage, but they will open up the broader existential questions. (Pictured above, a blue bag of hemoglobin is used the slow the death of “barely alive” pig brain cells.)

Read the full story here.

Please consider getting our full digital report and our magazine by subscribing here.

Getting the heart beating: In this Yale med school operating room, a pig’s heart spontaneously started to beat, hours after the time of death. Read more.

STORIES WE’RE FOLLOWING

PHOTOGRAPH BY ABDUL MAJEED, AFP/GETTY IMAGES

Human-caused climate change worsened floods (pictured above) that swept away a chunk of Pakistan’s GNP. Will the nations behind those emissions pay?

Why are so many teen girls getting long COVID? Related: What doctors didn’t tell you about COVID, vaccines

Free Solo, the Panda Helper, and other top photos of this century

These twins may make you rethink your views about race

Famine threatens 37 million people in the Horn of Africa

The teenage brain: Figuring out how and why teens think

Trash the pumpkin? Here’s how our readers help curb pumpkin pollution

What we still don’t know about Tut (Who was his mom? How’d he die?)

Why do we even have daylight savings time?

PHOTO OF THE DAY

PHOTOGRAPH BY ENRIC SALA, NAT GEO IMAGE COLLECTION

Sun-lovers: Dive into a lake with millions of golden jellyfish? Each year, tourists from around the world choose to do just that in Palau’s Jellyfish Lake. Every day the jellies migrate from one side of the lake to the other, following the arc of the sun to power the algae-like organisms in their bodies. In 2014, Nat Geo Explorer in Residence Enric Sala took the plunge on the Pacific island and captured the image above. Hear about Sala’s mission to save the world’s oceans on Nat Geo’s podcast, Overheard.

NO BRAINS, NO PROBLEM

IN THE SPOTLIGHT

PHOTOGRAPH BY NIVAL ANNE-SOPHIE, HANS LUCAS/REDUX

Problematic ‘soil’: It’s called potting soil but in fact, the products gardeners often use to raise beds or start seeds (pictured above) rarely contain actual soil or compost. Instead, most potting soil is a sterile blend of ingredients that contain a whopping carbon footprint. Nat Geo reports on the top three problematic components of potting soil—and how to find alternatives.

SOIL’S DIRTY SECRET

LAST GLIMPSE

PHOTOGRAPH BY HERBERT E. FRENCH, NATIONAL PHOTO COMPANY COLLECTION, LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

The other King Tut: Political advisers thought a picture with King Tut would make the reserved U.S. presidential candidate Herbert Hoover seem more approachable. So they snapped a photo (above) with Hoover’s “Belgian police dog,” Tut, and mailed it to potential voters across the country. As the world notes the 100th anniversary of discovering the pharaoh Tut’s tomb in Egypt, Nat Geo looks to another Tut who now rests in the U.S. capital—in the back yard of Myanmar’s embassy.

A PRESIDENT’S BEST FRIEND

Correction: Yesterday’s newsletter missed the last letter of the author of our story on kids and long COVID. Her name is Priyanka Runwal.

This newsletter has been curated and edited by David Beard, Sydney Combs, Jen Tse, and Heather Kim. Have a great weekend!

SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS

We’d like to hear from you! Tell us what you think of our emails by sharing your feedback in this short survey.

TAKE THE SURVEY

SHOP DONATE SUBSCRIBE TRAVEL

Clicking on the Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and National Geographic Channel links will take you away from our National Geographic Partners site where different terms of use and privacy policy apply.

This email was sent to: peter.hovis@gmail.com. Please do not reply to this email as this address is not monitored.

This email contains an advertisement from:
National Geographic | 1145 17th Street, N.W. | Washington, D.C. 20036

Stop all types of future commercial email from National Geographic regarding its products, services, or experiences.

This month is Native American Heritage Month

Honey Stinger

RJ Hamster

Cookie	Duration	Description
cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional	11 months	The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance".
viewed_cookie_policy	11 months	The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.

Preserving ‘nearly dead’ organs

Preserving ‘nearly dead’ organs

Share this:

Like this:

Related articles