• Skip to main content
  • Skip to header right navigation
  • Skip to site footer
Science Update

Science Update

Sharing Science | Satisfying Curiosity | Debunking BS

  • Spotlights
  • Reality Check
  • Why Is It?
  • Radio Archives
  • Sciup @ School
Home » Radio Archive » Daily Show » Saving Preemies

Saving Preemies

August 27, 2015
https://podcast.scienceupdate.com/150827_sciup_preemie.mp3

Podcast: Play in new window

BOB HIRSHON (host):

journal.pone.0086327.s001
A premature baby receives positive airflow from a low-cost CPAP machine. (Kawaza, et al., PLoSOne/CC BY-4.0)

A low-cost answer to premature infant death. I’m Bob Hirshon and this is Science Update.

Each year, hundreds of thousands of premature infants die because they don’t have access to six-thousand dollar CPAP machines to help them breath. That’s why Rice University bioengineer Rebecca Richards-Kortum led a team of students who designed their own version that costs just $150, and uses inexpensive aquarium pumps to provide airflow.

REBECCA RICHARDS-KORTUM (Rice University):

They just did some really good basic engineering in how do you build a device that does exactly what it needs to do, but not any more.

HIRSHON:

A study in Malawi showed the machines increased infant survival rates from 24% to 65%.

RICHARDS-KORTUM:

And that’s actually very similar to the improvement in survival that was seen when CPAP was introduced in the United States in the 1970s.

HIRSHON:

I’m Bob Hirshon, for AAAS, the science society. 

Category: Daily Show, Station DownloadTag: Children & Families, Engineering & Technology, Medicine & Health
Previous Post: « GMO Trees
Next Post: Beating Bitterness »

Sidebar

Radio Program Archives

Want to learn more about the brain? The environment? Here you can browse the topics that come up regularly on Science Update.

Search the Archives

Categories

  • Daily Show
  • Station Download
  • Weekly Show

Find By Tag

  • 2020
  • Acoustics & Sound
  • Aging
  • Animal Behavior
  • Anthropology
  • Archaeology
  • Astronomy & Space
  • Biology
  • Brain Science
  • Bugs
  • Chemistry
  • Children & Families
  • cicadas
  • Climate & Weather
  • Communications
  • Computer Science
  • Economics & Business
  • Education
  • Energy
  • Engineering & Technology
  • Environment & Conservation
  • Genetics & Evolution
  • Geology
  • Marine Science
  • Materials Science
  • Mathematics
  • Medicine & Health
  • Microbiology
  • Nanotechnology
  • Nutrition & Food Science
  • Paleontology & Dinosaurs
  • Physics
  • Plants & Agriculture
  • Political Science
  • Reality Check
  • Social & Behavioral Sciences
  • Sports & Fitness
  • spotlight
  • Spotlight Bugs
  • Terrorism & War
  • Why Is It? Questions
  • Wildlife
  • Year in Review

Find By Date

Science Update
  • About Science Update
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use

Follow Us

Recent Posts

House sparrow wearing top hat rides aboard a red fireworks rocket
Biologist E.O. Wilson with children
Diagram showing Earth's tilt

Copyright © 2022 · Springtail Media LLC · All Rights Reserved · Powered by Pongos