Life-saving batteries that power implantable cardiac defibrillators

Date: Dec-05-2013The engineering feat that enables a device to jolt a dangerously misbehaving heart back to its normal rhythm and save millions of lives is featured in a new video from the popular Prized Science series from the American Chemical Society (ACS). The video is available here.

The 2013 series' final episode, titled Building Life-Saving Batteries, features renowned inventor Esther S. Takeuchi, Ph.D., this year's winner of the E. V. Murphree Award in Industrial and Engineering Chemistry. The award, sponsored by ExxonMobil Research & Engineering, recognizes Takeuchi's work on a battery that powers implantable cardiac defibrillators (known as ICDs). These devices monitor patients' heartbeats continuously. When the beats go haywire, it can deliver a life-saving shock to help the heart resume a normal rhythm. Takeuchi is a professor of chemistry and of materials science and engineering at Stony Brook University. She also has a joint appointment at Brookhaven National Laboratory. Takeuchi is a winner of the prestigious National Medal of Technology and Innovation.

Previous episodes in the 2013 series feature five other honorees from this year's ACS national awards: Peter J. Stang, Ph.D., winner of the ACS Priestley Medal; Tim Swager, Ph.D., winner of the ACS Award for Creative Invention; Greg Robinson, Ph.D., winner of the F. Albert Cotton Award; Shirley Corriher, winner of the James T. Grady-James H. Stack Award for Interpreting Chemistry for the Public; and Isiah Warner, Ph.D., winner of the ACS Award in Analytical Chemistry.

Courtesy: Medical News Today Note: Any medical information available in this news section is not intended as a substitute for informed medical advice and you should not take any action before consulting with a health care professional.