Discoveries and inventions

[Rick Potter]

Have you ever noticed how sometimes, seemingly unsolvable problems seem to lessen because of a timely invention or discovery? Like maybe polio vaccine, penicillin or the Aids Cocktail, and like the cotton gin, or steam power?

In the discovery category, we have a new entrant. With the rise of the electric cars and such....it was just announced on an investment program that they have discovered a Lithium deposit larger than Australia's, in Canada, North of Quebec. Large investments are already starting.

Seems to me this should lessen some of the concerns about getting it from Africa and China.

[Maurice Mcmurry]

There is a long boring Indy film about life in and around the lithium salt flats in Bolivia or Argentina. I thought most of the Lithium salts came from South America.

That film seems to have disappeared from the web. It may have been in Chile. It follows an ancient hermit person trying to survive in a desolate place. There is almost no dialogue. The continuous loading and trucking of salt in the background stretches off to the horizon, a seemingly endless sea of salt, many feet deep.

[Larry Frank]

The McDermitt Caldera on the border of Nevada and Oregon is a huge lithium deposit. The EV batteries also need a lot of graphite and a new mine in Alaska is opening.

[Stan Calow]

I thought I read that they had also discovered large deposits in California, in the Salton Sea area.

[Maurice Mcmurry]

I thought I read that they had also discovered large deposits in California, in the Salton Sea area.

The farmer with his plow that punctured the gas main near Pullman Washington had me thinking of the Salton Sea yesterday. If I remember the story correctly, another farmer doing a little digging, accidentally diverted the Colorado river creating the Salton Sea.

[Pat Germain]

The farmer with his plow that punctured the gas main near Pullman Washington had me thinking of the Salton Sea yesterday. If I remember the story correctly, another farmer doing a little digging, accidentally diverted the Colorado river creating the Salton Sea.

It was the Army Corps of Engineers who created the Salton Sea. It's now saltier than the ocean and the whole area is a toxic mess. But yeah, there are MASSIVE deposits of lithium in that area and efforts are already underway to extract them.

The narrative that most or all lithium for EV batteries comes from Chinese strip mines is completely false. As mentioned above, most of lithium currently comes from South America.

[Doug Garson]

Interesting data, some studies report the price of EV batteries using lithium ion technology has dropped almost 90% from $1355/ kWh in 2008 to $153/kWh in 2022 and is predicted to drop an additional 40% to $99 kWh by 2025 and another 40% to around $58/kWh by 2030. Another study reports the cost of the battery for an EV in 2016 was about 49% of the total EV cost and will drop to about 19% by 2030.

[Brian Tymchak]

If I remember the story correctly, another farmer doing a little digging, accidentally diverted the Colorado river creating the Salton Sea.


It was the Army Corps of Engineers who created the Salton Sea.

I had heard that the Salton Sea was formed by a flood of the Colorado River.

[Maurice Mcmurry]

I read somewhere, I think it may be in the book The Dead Marsh, that farmers using the Colorado River to irrigate created a silt problem. The Army Corps then went to work on the silt problem. During this work a big flood occurred and the river diverted into the Salton Sink.

The Dead Marsh, Or the Silent Marsh, Must have been an article or obscure publication. It is about selenium contamination in a different area. I think it came from The Common Reader book magazine. Another thing I am not finding on the web.

[Jim Koepke]

This is from the California Department of Fish & Wildlife:


The Salton Sea, located in southern Riverside and northern Imperial counties in Southern California, is California' s largest lake (map at right). Although large seas have cyclically formed and dried over historic time in the basin due to natural flooding from the Colorado River, the current Salton Sea was formed when Colorado River floodwater breached an irrigation canal being constructed in the Imperial Valley in 1905 and flowed into the Salton Sink. The Sea has since been maintained by irrigation runoff in the Imperial and Coachella valleys and local rivers. Because the Sea is a terminal lake, increasingly concentrated salts have resulted in a salinity that is currently 50 percent greater than that of the ocean.

https://wildlife.ca.gov/Regions/6/Salton-Sea-Program/Background

Naturally, this does not dismiss other events from also being involved in the history of the Salton Sea.

jtk

[Kent A Bathurst]

Interesting data, some studies report the price of EV batteries using lithium ion technology has dropped almost 90% from $1355/ kWh in 2008 to $153/kWh in 2022 and is predicted to drop an additional 40% to $99 kWh by 2025 and another 40% to around $58/kWh by 2030. Another study reports the cost of the battery for an EV in 2016 was about 49% of the total EV cost and will drop to about 19% by 2030.


Yeah, and if Toyota [and others] deliver on their solid-state batteries the price of lithium ion batteries for autos goes to zero. The massive new lithium deposits will remain barely touched, if at all.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/lauriewinkless/2023/11/14/could-solid-state-batteries-supercharge-electric-vehicles/?sh=1bae2e11592c

Tech advances astound - continually. My Kansas grandfather farmers used to tell me about seeing the first tractors on farms. And they lived to see Neil Armstrong live on TV from the moon.

[Doug Garson]

I can still remember several decades ago we visited the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. The director at that time had witnessed the second Wright brothers flight in person and watched the first man to walk on the moon on TV.
In my working career, I went from using a slide rule to a laptop.

Don't think the Toyota solid state battery will reduce demand for lithium, they still use lithium, the difference is they don't use a liquid electrolyte. "Long seen as a potential game-changer for BEVs, Toyota has made a technological breakthrough in its quest to improve the durability of Li-Ion solid-state batteries."
https://newsroom.toyota.eu/toyotas-advanced-battery-technology-roadmap/#:~:text=Breakthrough%20with%20Solid%2DState%20Bat teries,%2DIon%20solid%2Dstate%20batteries.

[Bill Dufour]

The Dead Marsh, Or the Silent Marsh, Must have been an article or obscure publication. It is about selenium contamination in a different area. I think it came from The Common Reader book magazine. Another thing I am not finding on the web.[/QUOTE]

Probably the kesterson wildlife refuge. Farmers drained subsurface irrigation water into it to make a lake for wildlife. This water contains pesticides and selenium killing the migrating birds it was supposed to help.
Bill D.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kesterson_National_Wildlife_Refuge

[Maurice Mcmurry]

The Dead Marsh, Or the Silent Marsh, Must have been an article or obscure publication. It is about selenium contamination in a different area. I think it came from The Common Reader book magazine. Another thing I am not finding on the web.

Probably the kesterson wildlife refuge. Farmers drained subsurface irrigation water into it to make a lake for wildlife. This water contains pesticides and selenium killing the migrating birds it was supposed to help.
Bill D.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kesterson_National_Wildlife_Refuge[/QUOTE]

Thanks Bill. That is the place and the sad story.

This was interesting about the Salton Sea.
Truly CA | Plagues & Pleasures on the Salton Sea | Truly CA | Season 3 | Episode 2 | PBS (https://www.pbs.org/video/truly-ca-plagues-pleasures-salton-sea-episode-302-trulyca/)

[Maurice Mcmurry]

I can still remember several decades ago we visited the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. The director at that time had witnessed the second Wright brothers flight in person and watched the first man to walk on the moon on TV.

I love the back story of the Wright Flyer replica that is in the museum at Kitty Hawk. It was built in the workshop at the Smithsonian Institute. If I remember correctly the replica cost a million dollars and took a team of workers a year to build. The Wright Brothers built the original in a few weeks with a few dollars.

[Jim Koepke]

I love the back story of the Wright Flyer replica that is in the museum at Kitty Hawk. It was built in the workshop at the Smithsonian Institute. If I remember correctly the replica cost a million dollars and took a team of workers a year to build. The Wright Brothers built the original in a few weeks with a few dollars.

The Wright brothers were not getting paid for their work. They likely didn't have a team of engineers and designers creating a file of drawings and documentation of every nut, bolt and washer.

Also, when people are paid by the hour, they don't tend to work as enthusiastically as someone who is thinking about how they are going to pay for their next meal.

jtk

[Kent A Bathurst]

Don't think the Toyota solid state battery will reduce demand for lithium, they still use lithium, the difference is they don't use a liquid electrolyte. "Long seen as a potential game-changer for BEVs, Toyota has made a technological breakthrough in its quest to improve the durability of Li-Ion solid-state batteries."
https://newsroom.toyota.eu/toyotas-advanced-battery-technology-roadmap/#:~:text=Breakthrough%20with%20Solid%2DState%20Bat teries,%2DIon%20solid%2Dstate%20batteries.


Oh. Well. There are clearly smarter people than I on this topic. Thanks

[Maurice Mcmurry]

The Wright brothers were not getting paid for their work. They likely didn't have a team of engineers and designers creating a file of drawings and documentation of every nut, bolt and washer.

Also, when people are paid by the hour, they don't tend to work as enthusiastically as someone who is thinking about how they are going to pay for their next meal.

jtk

No disrespect to the Smithsonian Institute intended. The Wright Brothers corresponded with the Smithsonian extensively.

The Wright Brothers never knew poverty or went hungry. They were both excellent cooks and they took their cooking and dining very seriously. I have read everything I can get my hands on about them. The David Mccullough book is a favorite.

[Doug Garson]

Oh. Well. There are clearly smarter people than I on this topic. Thanks
And his name is "hey Google" :D

[Rick Potter]

Another interesting thing about the Wright brothers is that they actually made their own engine to run the plane. I read that they even cast the engine block, with help from locals near their bike shop. I think they made their own propeller also.

And then, they also discovered that Lilienthal (?) who wrote early manuals on aerodynamic lift made a math mistake, and that was what had been holding back other attempts.

Correct me if I am off on this, it has been a long time since I visited Kitty Hawk. Working from memory here.

[Kent A Bathurst]

And his name is "hey Google" :D

I didn't say it was a short list............

[Maurice Mcmurry]

They did work on engine designs. I am fairly certain the one in the original flyer was manufactured by others. The propellers were their own design. The Mccullough book is loaded with details. I recommend it.

I went ahead and googled it. Rick is correct. However they did get some help.

1903 Wright Engine (https://www.wright-brothers.org/Information_Desk/Just_the_Facts/Engines_&_Props/1903_Engine.htm)

[Jim Koepke]

No disrespect to the Smithsonian Institute intended. The Wright Brothers corresponded with the Smithsonian extensively.

The Wright Brothers never knew poverty or went hungry. They were both excellent cooks and they took their cooking and dining very seriously. I have read everything I can get my hands on about them. The David Mccullough book is a favorite.


Oh. Well. There are clearly smarter people than I on this topic. Thanks

What Kent said.

jtk

[Maurice Mcmurry]

Wilbur and Orville Wright were certainly smart. Also very determined, hardworking and highly skilled. Their accomplishments are truly remarkable. David McCullough himself read for the audiobook version of The Wright Brothers and does an excellent job. My wife brought that home too so she could hear someone other than me waffle on about the Wrights.

[Mel Fulks]

Been there a number of times and it’s always a treasured event. They worked well together. When they were ready to try the thing out
it was a Sunday and they waited for another day . I think it was on their Father’s wish.

[Perry Hilbert Jr]

I was trying to remember how to use a slide rule a few weeks ago when I bought one at a flea market. I remember an acquaintance,, engineering student at Bucknell about 1971, worked an entire summer to buy a scientific calculator that can now be purchased for around $10. and probably for which there is a free app for cell phones.

Discoveries and inventions are not always true discoveries or inventions at a lot, but of times, more of somebody applled the idea to a new set of circumstances. There were revolving firearms in central Europe in the late 1500's. But metallurgy and industrial precision had advanced sufficiently by the 1830's to make Samuel Colts application of the idea a huge deal. Ben Franklin developed an electric motor in the 1700's, nut thought it was just a curiousity. He did use it to turn a turkey on a spit in the kitchen, but the wide applications were not realized until Tesla invented a more practical improvement. In this day and age, we know where vast resources are, it just takes industry's evolution to make such resources worth using.

[Lawrence Duckworth]

I was trying to remember how to use a slide rule a few weeks ago when I bought one at a flea market. I remember an acquaintance,, engineering student at Bucknell about 1971, worked an entire summer to buy a scientific calculator that can now be purchased for around $10. and probably for which there is a free app for cell phones.
.

....I think you get a free Mortgage payment calculator that does PMI, taxes, monthly payments and insurance with a McDonalds happy meal.

[Doug Garson]

I was trying to remember how to use a slide rule a few weeks ago when I bought one at a flea market. I remember an acquaintance,, engineering student at Bucknell about 1971, worked an entire summer to buy a scientific calculator that can now be purchased for around $10. and probably for which there is a free app for cell phones.

How did you make out with the slide rule? I used one for almost a decade at work in the 70s. I think even back then I probably only knew how to do about a quarter of what it was capable, now not sure if I could multiply 2 x 2 today.

[Bill Dufour]

The jacuzzi bothers, in Berkeley California, built an airplane and made their own design of a propellor. From that they moved into pump impellers. Later came hot tube pumps when one had medical problems and needed hydro therapy.
Bill D

[Bill Howatt]

How did you make out with the slide rule? I used one for almost a decade at work in the 70s. I think even back then I probably only knew how to do about a quarter of what it was capable, now not sure if I could multiply 2 x 2 today.

I used one in the 60s and later primarily for electrical/electronics work. It wasn't a specific EE model but had all the exponent scales etc. Found it in the back of a cupboard a few years ago and I could do the basic multiply and divide but the fancier scales were certainly not obvious anymore.
My boss had a much longer one so he could get at least one more digit in the calculation. The PITA with a slide rule is determining where the decimal point goes in the answer.

[Dwayne Watt]

All this talk of slide rules reminded me of my one and only encounter with one. In high school, slide rule use had been taught until a new math teacher arrived. He showed us a slide rule and said, "You will never see one of these again. They do make for a great straight edge, though". He had us purchase Texas Instrument calculators that had trig functions. The school board nearly fired him for allowing calculators to be brought into the classroom. I know this part was true because my father was on the board at the time.
The math teacher was correct. The next time I saw one was in the Smithsonian adjacent to the lunar landing module exhibit.

[Doug Garson]

The PITA with a slide rule is determining where the decimal point goes in the answer.
So true. We used to roughly calculate the answer in our head to get an idea of the order of magnitude ie where the decimal point was before getting the numbers from the slide rule.

[Lee DeRaud]

I used one in the 60s and later primarily for electrical/electronics work. It wasn't a specific EE model but had all the exponent scales etc. Found it in the back of a cupboard a few years ago and I could do the basic multiply and divide but the fancier scales were certainly not obvious anymore.
My boss had a much longer one so he could get at least one more digit in the calculation. The PITA with a slide rule is determining where the decimal point goes in the answer.
I had a physics prof who despised calculators, and insisted we do all calculations to, as he put it, "slide-rule accuracy". Of course, he had a monster that would barely fit in his briefcase and cost more than the car I was driving at the time. The engineering majors in that class were miffed, as HP had shown up on campus giving out free HP35s to the engineering students as a largish-scale beta test. (Thankfully, I was a math major: I absolutely hated RPN.)

Fast-forward four years, and I was at Rockwell on a project proposal that required a ton of manual spreadsheet work. This was awhile before VisiCalc was invented or had anything to run on, so the company brought in cases of their as-yet-unreleased "cheap" calculators. And cheap they were: the over/under for keyboard failure was measured in days...I'm not sure I ever saw one of them for retail sale anywhere. The older engineers grumbled about them, but hey, slide-rules can't add. :)

[mike stenson]

and now the only thing I can't do on the built in calc on my phone is math in binary, octal or hex.

[Lee DeRaud]

and now the only thing I can't do on the built in calc on my phone is math in binary, octal or hex.
Here ya go: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=cz.hipercalc&hl=en_US&gl=US

[mike stenson]

Here ya go: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=cz.hipercalc&hl=en_US&gl=US
Oh I have apps to do it, and can easily do it on my laptop. But so much for "you're not always going to have a calculator with you".

[Rick Potter]

My parents used a 'Comptometer' for accounting, before there were electric adding machines. It was a mechanical beast, flipping decimals mechanically like an old typewritter, and had about a hundred mechanical buttons to push. My brother still has it. Never seen another like it used anywhere.

I think my mother bought it used in the 1950's. No idea how old it was then. Still works though.

PS: I recently gave my slide rule to my nephew's son, who just graduated in Engineering. His eyes lit up like a 100 candlepower bulb.

[John Stankus]

I used one in the 60s and later primarily for electrical/electronics work. It wasn't a specific EE model but had all the exponent scales etc. Found it in the back of a cupboard a few years ago and I could do the basic multiply and divide but the fancier scales were certainly not obvious anymore.
My boss had a much longer one so he could get at least one more digit in the calculation. The PITA with a slide rule is determining where the decimal point goes in the answer.

I have a much longer one in my office here. :D 510687

[Jim Koepke]

I have a much longer one in my office here. :D 510687

That looks like the ones that used to hang on a stand in high school math classes back in the 1960s. Fast forward to the 1980s, my employment was as a field service technician fixing "blue print" machines. Most of the time they were off in a back room right next to the old slide rules mounted on a rolling stand.

There are at least three slide rules around the house and shop. One of them is a tie tack that is clipped onto an old hat of mine.

510695

The clear plastic piece with the demarcation line fell off many years ago.

jtk

[Bill Howatt]

I have a much longer one in my office here. :D 510687

Definitely bigger than the one he had!
A friend had a slide rule mounted in a glass case over his desk with a sign on it, "In case of power failure, break glass".
I gave my fancy K&E one and a 6" pocket model to a friend's son who has a collection.

[Jim Koepke]

Have you ever noticed how sometimes, seemingly unsolvable problems seem to lessen because of a timely invention or discovery? Like maybe polio vaccine, penicillin or the Aids Cocktail, and like the cotton gin, or steam power?

Some of the amazing inventions in the medical field would include the ability to insert a stent into an obstructed artery without having to open the patient's chest. A similar method is used to insert a replacement heart valve.

There are also knee & hip replacements.

Imagine, people who are not much older than me were born before commercial TV broadcasts became common.

Not far from me is Astoria, OR which became one of the first cities in North America to have a rudimentary cable system. In late 1948 a radio engineer rigged up an antenna and an amplifier so his wife could watch broadcasts from Seattle, WA. Other people wanted access so it grew. Cable has certainly changed since those days. Now there are cable networks and many people watch via satellite signal.

jtk

[Bill Dufour]

KCBS radio is still going strong since 1909. They were the first commercial radio station in the world.
Bill D

[Maurice Mcmurry]

I was trying to remember how to use a slide rule a few weeks ago when I bought one at a flea market

Reading this this morning started me humming Sam Cooke and Jimmy Jones all day, which is nice.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4GLAKEjU4w

[Alan Rutherford]

...Imagine, people who are not much older than me were born before commercial TV broadcasts became common....

I'm not sure what qualifies as "Not much older than me" but I was born before the start of The War (that would be WWII) and suspect I'm not the only one around here. I was 8 before I even saw a TV set, with or without commercials, and not because I lived under a rock. TV's and their content have certainly become more sophisticated in all that time and commercials - would you believe that there was a time when underarm deoderant commercials were considered too distasteful for TV? And of course commercials didn't dominate the viewing experience the way they do now.

Since we're talking about history, progress and all that, here's something to think about: anyone born before sometime in 1941 has been alive for more than one-third of the entire history of our country since 1776, including all the innovations, conflicts, social changes and everything else that happened during those years.

[Jim Koepke]

Since we're talking about history, progress and all that, here's something to think about: anyone born before sometime in 1941 has been alive for more than one-third of the entire history of our country since 1776, including all the innovations, conflicts, social changes and everything else that happened during those years.

Mentioning 1776 reminded me of a few newspaper articles from the 1960s about people whose grandfather served in the Revolutionary War.

Here is one that turned up in a Google search. It is a segment of an old TV game show, I've Got a Secret.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6swMZfNip0E

The panel doesn't geuss the secret.

jtk

[Ron Citerone]

Does spell check and calculators make us worse spellers and less capable of mental math? What diid scientists think of slide rules when they first came out? How bout those board foot measuring sticks?

Just musing…..

[Bob Turkovich]

Some of the amazing inventions in the medical field would include the ability to insert a stent into an obstructed artery without having to open the patient's chest. A similar method is used to insert a replacement heart valve.


jtk

My wife went through a catheter procedure in the spring where they went into the heart via a vein in the wrist. She was awake throughout the procedure and was able to see what the medical staff was seeing. They confirmed she needed a new aortic valve but the rest of the heart looked fine.

They replaced her aortic valve 6 weeks ago by going through the groin. Had her follow-up exam on Tuesday. Told her she could do whatever she wanted and to come back in a year.

[Bob Turkovich]

Ok... which slide rule manufacturer "rules"? Post, Pickett or K&E?

[Curt Harms]

Does spell check and calculators make us worse spellers and less capable of mental math? What diid scientists think of slide rules when they first came out? How bout those board foot measuring sticks?

Just musing…..

I do wonder if having 'everything' on a phone lessens the incentive to learn to spell and do mental math.

[Bill Howatt]

I do wonder if having 'everything' on a phone lessens the incentive to learn to spell and do mental math.

I would say so, as seen by the user, there is no need for it. The loss of need is why the exponential and fancier scales on my slide rule were no longer obvious - and dare I say that after the years for the same reason, how to do the underlying math with or without an aid is severely diminished too.
When I use a calculator, phone-based calculator or even a spreadsheet, I still do a mental "idiot check" of the answer since keying errors are a problem and in the spreadsheet case, maybe the formula isn't quite right.
Spell-check could be a good teaching tool if the user noted the correct spelling but that may be unlikely.

[Rick Potter]

I freely admit I am not computer savvy at all, but I do use google daily to look up interesting new things. I even retain some. Yesterday I looked up interest rates on new and used cars. Wow, are they up since April when I bought one.

No learning yesterday, but I simply asked Google what time it was in Tunisia, so I could call my wife and daughter, who are there for a week.

[Warren Lake]

the SR-71 blackbird was designed with a slide rule.

[Andrew Joiner]

My wife went through a catheter procedure in the spring were they went into the heart via a vein in the wrist. She was awake throughout the procedure and was able to see what the medical staff was seeing. They confirmed she needed a new aortic valve but the rest of the heart looked fine.

They replaced her aortic valve 6 weeks ago by going through the groin. Had her follow-up exam on Tuesday. Told her she could do whatever she wanted and to come back in a year.

That's such a cool story about your wife Bob, thank you. The advancements in medical stuff are amazing.

I have a windsurfing friend that's 60 years old and very athletic. I was told she had a joint replacement so I didn't see her on the water for a while. In the spring of 2023 when the season began I saw her getting ready to windsurf. I asked about her joint surgery and she said she took 9 months off cuz she had both knees and both hips replaced! She had it done as fast as she could so she could get back to being active again.
Then we went out in strong wind and she windsurfed as good as she did in her prime.:) I've been lucky and not needed any joint replacements, but her story is so inspiring.

[Lee DeRaud]

Context matters:
510787

[Jim Koepke]

…
They replaced her aortic valve 6 weeks ago by going through the groin. Had her follow-up exam on Tuesday. Told her she could do whatever she wanted and to come back in a year.

My TAVR (Trans-catheter Aortic Valve Replacement) was 5 weeks ago. I have a follow up in two weeks.

Is your wife going to a Cardiac Health Exercise clinic? I'm scheduled to start next week.

jtk

[Bob Turkovich]

My TAVR (Trans-catheter Aortic Valve Replacement) was 5 weeks ago. I have a follow up in two weeks.

Is your wife going to a Cardiac Health Exercise clinic? I'm scheduled to start next week.

jtk

She was kept in the hospital overnight. She had a follow-up with the surgeon one week later in which she was given the Ok to start doing some exercise (including golf) but don't overdue it until she gets into the Cardio Rehab program. She had her orientation (exercise + lifestyle counselng) earlier this week with the program and will start a week from Monday.

She believes she doesn't get as tired by the end of the day since the valve replacement. We celebrated her 70th birthday two weeks ago.

[Jim Koepke]

She was kept in the hospital overnight. She had a follow-up with the surgeon one week later in which she was given the Ok to start doing some exercise (including golf) but don't overdue it until she gets into the Cardio Rehab program. She had her orientation (exercise + lifestyle counselng) earlier this week with the program and will start a week from Monday.

She believes she doesn't get as tired by the end of the day since the valve replacement. We celebrated her 70th birthday two weeks ago.

I was also kept overnight. Didn't sleep much that night. My first night home was the best night's sleep I've had in years or since. I also no longer get as tired by the end of the day.

Isn't modern medicine great! Much more than a half century ago we would have likely been out of luck.

My 73 birthday was in September.

jtk

[Jerome Stanek]

I was also kept overnight. Didn't sleep much that night. My first night home was the best night's sleep I've had in years or since. I also no longer get as tired by the end of the day.

Isn't modern medicine great! Much more than a half century ago we would have likely been out of luck.

My 73 birthday was in September.

jtk

Glad to hear that. My sister in law had it done back in 2015 and she felt like a new person. She died in 2019 from cancer but up until then she said she felt great. The reason she had the TAVR was she had open heart surgery and they couldn't replace her valve as she had porcelain veins and they ended up just closing her up. So she had a rough time altogether.

[Alan Lightstone]

Yes, TAVR's are pretty amazing. Originally only used on patients who weren't expected to survive open aortic valve replacements (AVRs).

Mortality rates for critical aortic stenosis, untreated are huge, in short periods of time. One of the operations I most enjoyed doing was AVRs, because of all the patients in cardiac surgery, their lives seemed to change the most afterwards.

Certainly challenging to do the anesthesia for TAVRs. Kept my transesophageal echocardiography skills state-of-the art. And mind-blowing that we can do this with patients sedated and not always require general anesthesia (which is not simple, or risk-free in patients with critical aortic stenosis.)

Congrats on your successful procedure.

[Alan Lightstone]

On a medical note. People often say that pulse oximeters are an amazing invention that saved many lives. And they have. (It is mind-blowing to me to see these fingertip probes sold on Amazon, CVS, etc., when the originals were large metal boxes that cost $20K.) As an anesthesia resident, the first thing I would do on my call nights was sneak into one of the ORs that had them, and "borrow" the end-tidal CO2 monitor and pulse oximeter, and bring them into my OR for the night.

But end-tidal CO2 monitors have saved many, many more lives in the operating room and intensive care units than pulse oximeters ever did. And we had to fight like crazy, to get them mandated as a standard. (Yay, Harvard Medical School Dept of Anesthesia!!!)..

[Kent A Bathurst]

One of the operations I most enjoyed doing was AVRs..........

........ Kept my transesophageal echocardiography skills state-of-the art.......

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But most important, how does this translate to half-blind dovetails?


:) I'm astounded, Alan. Gonna have to start calling you Sir.

[Bill Dufour]

NRI or maybe CAT scans were being developed/improved at LBL. The lead experimenter had taken hundreds of scans of animals and people. He decided maybe his lead tech should get an x-ray license. So the tech went to x-ray school part time and had to keep telling the class the text book was wrong. It was now possible to get certain images the book said could not be done.
Bill D.
PS: None of the early nuclear physics pioneers had a degree in nuclear physics. Including those with Nobel prizes in physics.

[Jim Koepke]

But most important, how does this translate to half-blind dovetails?

You mean the Aortic Valve Replacement wasn't joined to the Aorta with dovetails?


None of the early nuclear physics pioneers had a degree in nuclear physics. Including those with Nobel prizes in physics.

Probably because there wasn't any nuclear physicists to teach college or university level classes at the time.

jtk

[Kent A Bathurst]

You mean the Aortic Valve Replacement wasn't joined to the Aorta with dovetails?

Couldn't get the blue tape to stick.

[Doug Garson]

Probably because there wasn't any nuclear physicists to teach college or university level classes at the time.

jtk

Mmmm, brings back the old "Which came first, the chicken or the egg?"

[Bill Dufour]

Nicolas Appert invented canning around 1810 and got prise money from Napoleon for preserving food. He used wine bottles so why is it called canning?
BilLD

[Doug Garson]

Maybe because whining was already taken?

[Maurice Mcmurry]

Have you ever noticed how sometimes, seemingly unsolvable problems seem to lessen because of a timely invention or discovery? Like maybe polio vaccine, penicillin or the Aids Cocktail, and like the cotton gin, or steam power?

In the discovery category, we have a new entrant. With the rise of the electric cars and such....it was just announced on an investment program that they have discovered a Lithium deposit larger than Australia's, in Canada, North of Quebec. Large investments are already starting.

Seems to me this should lessen some of the concerns about getting it from Africa and China.

Google put this article by Sammy Roth in my news feed. It is very interesting.

https://www.latimes.com/environment/newsletter/2024-01-25/column-the-lithium-revolution-has-arrived-at-californias-salton-sea-boiling-point