Zero Gravity Surgery... Just 'Cause We Can
from the totally-eXtreme-surgery dept
Zero gravity flights have been growing in popularity over the last few years, as they've become available to the public. It involves a modified plane that parabolic arcs, basically creating a giant roller coaster, that gives the folks in the plane the feeling of zero-gravity for a short period of time (it can also induce feelings of nausea, which is why the original version for astronauts-in-training was referred to as the "vomit comet"). However, some surgeons in France are about to take one such flight to perform a zero-gravity surgery. Why? Well, that's not explained. It might have something to do with understanding how to do surgery in space. Or seeing if you can do different types of procedures with zero-gravity. But, really, we have no idea. And, neither does anyone else, apparently. According to the article: "It was unclear how exactly the surgery could be useful in space, or whether there would be any broader medical use for the procedure." The head surgeon involved makes some vague statements about how an astronaut on a space station might need an emergency surgery which couldn't be done, but others admit there don't seem to be very much practical applications outside of that to be learned. There's some talk about robot surgeons, but again, it's totally unclear. To be honest, it sounds like this is just something that some surgeons thought would be kind of fun, and so they went forward with it. The specific surgery is to remove a tumor from the patient's arm, and the surgeons say they chose an avid bungee jumper so that he might better be able to handle the rapid changes in direction. Maybe next time they'll try to do the surgery while bungee jumping.
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Imagine the flying scalpels as the plane changes directions.
Not only they will fail to remove the tumor properly but might end up wounding or even killing themselves.
Idiots.
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Gotta be fake
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Why?
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Re: Why?
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i'd wish they'd do this on the iss with test animals first. not some 30 second pop onboard some aircraft.
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But...
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Re: Re: Why?
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Re: Re: Re: Why?
"weightlessness (or zero-g)"
Gravity is a relative measurement. In this case the object is move in the exact opposite direction of the Earth's forces.
Object's acceleration towards Earth = X
Earth's gravitational force = -X
-X + X = 0
When someone is pulling 3 G's in a jet, they are experiencing 3 times the force of gravity, 3 G's of force is being exerted on their body, word it however you want to. It is also possible to experience negative G's. In between positive and negative is a little round thing I like to call zero. For all intents and purposes, in this frame of reference gravity has gone away, though it remains unchanged from your fixed position on the Earth.
I don't have a meaningless URL to point you to in return, but maybe if you look into relativity it will clarify to you why an object experiencing zero gravity doesn't mean the Earth's forces have stopped applying to it.
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If you were to *read* the story...
a) they have done it on a rat already
b) it'll take 3 hours with 30 "slots" - they're not trying to do it in one slot
c) it's not unreasonable to give it a shot, as a v minor, local anasthetic op has been picked
d) are we saying that, in our humble opinions, that even a small op in microgravity will *never* be necessary, so let's not find out how to do it?
I love comments that feed off themselves rather than from the story itself ;-)
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why not?
if you combine research in zero gravity medicine, along with research in telemedicine (medicine where the medical staffis not present) using remote monitoring and robotics, you can increase the safety of space exploration.
once space travel is safer, it will be open to more people.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Why?
"zero g" does not mean there is no gravity. when someone experiences a "g force" it has nothing to do with gravity other than having a specific relation to gravity's magnitude. usually g forces have to do with the occurence of acceleration. yes, acceleration can be indistinguishable from gravity but this does not mean acceleration is gravity. if a pilot does a turn in air and experiences so many g's it is a relation of the intertial force exerted upon him caused by acceleration in a different direction to the force of gravity, it is not actual gravity that the pilot is experiencing. i don't know if i can stress this enough, a g force is a unit of force equal to the force of gravity, it isn't gravity!!!! people experiencing "zero g" are experiencing what it would be like if there were zero gravity, they're NOT experiencing actual zero gravity.
i can understand, due to your obvious lack of comprehension skills, why you took it upon yourself to try to argue against something in which you had no real argument. nowhere in my first post did i say that a zero g force doesn't exist. however, zero gravity, literally taken, does not exist. as the article headline simply says zero gravity surgery, i took it upon myself to point out that this isn't literally such a thing zero gravity. unfortunatly you were unable to comprehend this. maybe your physics teacher never stressed that a g force isn't actual gravity. or that weightlessness doesn't mean that there isn't gravity involved. objects experience the illusion of zero gravity, but as long as there is matter there is gravity. maybe you should go back to that site i gave the link to and read through it again, put some thought into it this time...
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Why?
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if a pilot does a turn in air and experiences so many g's it is a relation of the intertial force exerted upon him caused by acceleration in a different direction to the force of gravity
to clarify the relation is of the intertial force to the force of gravity, the inertial force felt is due to the acceleration.
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how apropos
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Take it outside, girls
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Why?
i won't even bother to argue with your cosmological errors either, you can't logically conclude as a fact that the universe is infinitely large and you definetly can't logically conclude that there's an infinite amount of mass in it.
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good idea
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