This is SCIENCE FRIDAY. I'm Ira Flatow. Over 115,000 Americans are currently waiting for an organ transplant, and most of them are in need of a kidney. Now, what if we could just create a kidney for them in the laboratory? One of my next guests has experimented with printing out organs using an inkjet printer, but instead of ink, he uses cells.
The most beloved, most studied, most-likely-to-get-played-by-Daniel-Day-Lewis man to ever hold the office of President of the United States was himself a house divided.
Mathematician Ian Stewart joins the Science Friday Book Club meeting to discuss Edwin Abbott's classic Flatland. The book, published in 1884 under the pseudonym "A. Square," tells the story of a two-dimensional world where women are straight lines and men are polygons.
Outtake from a Devo show? Nope, It's an orgone accumulator. The device was touted as treatment for anemia, epilepsy and high blood pressure. In 1954, the FDA halted distribution of the devices.
Credit Science Museum of Minnesota
The Psychograph. It looks like something you'd find in your grandmother's hair salon, but this machine supposedly read the bumps on a person's head to measure personality traits.
Credit Food and Drug Administration
The Magnetron. Osteopath Peter D. Pauls claimed that by placing one foot on a red pad and one hand on a metal tube, patients could be treated for conditions ranging from rheumatoid arthritis to diabetes.
Credit Science Museum of Minnesota
The Kellogg Vibratory Chair. Though it looks like an instrument of capital punishment, this electric-powered chair was reputed to cure constipation and improve respiration. The chair shook and rattled so violently that patients had to hold firmly onto side handles.
Credit Food and Drug Administration
The Relaxacizor. Popularized by advertisements featuring unauthorized celebrity endorsements, the Relaxacizor claimed to help women drop dress sizes while reading, eating dinner, or sleeping. The machine used electrical pulses, which the FDA found to be harmful some people.
Credit Science Museum of Minnesota
The McGregor Rejuvenator. M.E. Montrude, Jr., the maker of this 1932 device, claimed that by using magnetism, radio waves and ultraviolet rays, the rejuvenator could reverse the aging process.
The third season of the television showDownton Abbey premiered in the U.K. last weekend, and if you're a dedicated follower like me, you'll know that medical tragedy is no stranger to the Crowley household.
