June 29, 2013

A tiny balloon inserted into dangerously clogged arteries at the tip end of a long tube is saving lives by sweeping away the blood clots. A 29-year-old resident in surgery invented the device…. It has been used on 22 patients at the Good Samaritan Hospital in Cincinnati. Dr. Thomas J. Fogarty, now at the University of Oregon Medical School, originated the new … balloon-catheter technique….  A small incision is made either in the groin or other location nearest the clot, and the tube is inserted as far as it will go. The balloon inflates and is filled with blood, carrying the clot or clots with it when it is withdrawn.

The periodic table, which arranges elements based on chemical behavior and physical properties, is a triumph of science. Yet the first table, developed in the late 1860s, was riddled with gaps created by undiscovered elements.