The University of Southampton

Author: Oliver Thompson

Just because you’re dead, doesn’t mean your body can’t have an adventure!

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It is no secret that the UK faces a serious organ shortage. Approximately 7,000 people are on a waiting list for an organ, and just last year, 430 people died never receiving one . Strategies have been implemented to help boost the number of donations, such as the switch to an opt out system in the UK. As well as advancements in humanizing animal organs for use, such as the decellularization and recellularization of pig organs with human pluripotent stem cells (see bellow). Or the genetic modification of a pig heart in order to remove its ‘pig markers’, so that after transplant the heart is hidden from our immune system (as seen in David Bennet’s case). Or just straight up growing human organs in chimeric pigs! Hopefully with these advancement, in the future, donations for organs transplant will become obsolete. However, donations to science will always be in demand.

A summary I made depicting the steps involved in decellularization and recellularization of pig organs.

After getting the opportunity to view prosthetic implants in situ, I genuinely felt indifferent. I thought it would be interesting experience but not something that would leave a lasting impression on me, boy was I wrong! After arriving at Southampton General and traversing its maze-like corridors, down into the depths of the hospital. My nose was hit with the overpowering chemical smell and shortly after, I was exposed to a preserved human corpse… A WHOLE (bar their missing lungs) HUMAN CORPSE! [Which I later found out are called cadavers.]

Next I was taken to see the prosthetics in situ and the room resemble something comparable to that of a serial killers basement! Human body parts, preserved and exposing their prosthetics, everywhere! Although being warned about what I would see, being their first hand was such a surreal experience, but very educational and insightful. I even got to touch the specimens first hand, truly a once in a lifetime experience.

Coming away from this event, gave me such an understanding for why donating your body to science is so important. Hospitals will often use the donated bodies to aid with teaching and preparing surgeons for what they might see in theatre. For example, when performing a hip replacement surgery, it is one thing to read about where the prosthetic should sit in the body from text books and videos but getting to see it in person is an invaluable learning experience. I don’t know about you, but I would want my surgeon to have seen where my prosthetic needed to go in situ before they actually went through with the operation! Additionally some donation will go onto to be used as surgical practice for training medical professionals. Or, your body could be used In research, to help aid the progress our knowledge of the human body.

However, are hospitals and medical schools the only places that requires human bodies? When you agree to donate your body to science, will your body definitely be used to aid in the teaching of generations of doctors to come, or could it end up in a barrel?! A notion I would’ve laughed at, until I stumbled across these macabre facilities known as body farms.

Body farms are forensic research facilities that aim to progress our knowledge and understanding about human decomposition. These facilities involve placing bodies in different situation and environments whilst monitoring how they decompose. Data gathered from body farms go onto aid police in determining what may have happened at crime scenes. The UK currently doesn’t have a body farm but there are talks about setting one up.

When it comes down to it, whether you wish to donate your body to science is your own personal choice and you can see mine bellow.

To hear or not to hear? That is the question.

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A estimated 900,000 people in the UK suffer from server or profound hearing loss (approximately 1.34% of the UK population), and the World Health Organisation estimate that a whopping 5% of the global population suffer from disabling hearing loss! Now you may think that these stats aren’t anything to worry about and that hearing aids will compensate for hearing loss. You wouldn’t be completely incorrect, as hearing aids do help those with partial deafness, but they do not provide the same level of aid for those who suffer from serve/profound hearing loss.

Those who suffer from serve/profound hearing loss are categorised as not being able to hear sounds bellow 71-95dB (for serve hearing loss) and sounds bellow 95dB (for profound hearing loss). To put this into context, imagine you go to a club with a friend who suffers with profound hearing loss. You and your friend would need to stand 1 meter from the speakers in order for them to hear the music, and after a night like that you too may be suffering some hearing loss!

So if hearing aids aren’t the best solution, what is being done? Well in 1961 the first ever cochlear implant (CI) was used, and since then many advancement have been made to shrink the implant and minimise the invasiveness of the procedure. The CI is a device that contains a receiver that is inserted under the skin of the head with an electrode that is implanted into the cochlear directly. Additionally a transmitter and microphone/processor are attached to the receiver on top of the skin via magnets. Essentially what the CI does is receive sound via the microphone and processes that sound into digital information, which passes from the transmitter to the receiver (through the skin) and down the electrode to stimulate the cochlear directly. Allowing for the sounds picked up by the microphone to be heard by the deaf patient.

Diagram showing where the cochlear implant sits within the head.

As of 2022, more than 1 MILLION cochlear implants have been successfully implanted! Granting many people, of all ages, the sense of hearing! So seeing that cochlear implants have the ability to artificially restore one of our key senses, surely no one would object to them? And even if there were, I would assume they’d be ill spirited people that can’t stand the idea of seeing others enjoy hearing. Or perhaps those with personal or religious beliefs that sees the implantation of foreign matter into the body as wrong. Well upon research, there are indeed people as I just described, but the leading voice against CI shocked me and may shock you too.

This voice being those from the deaf community themselves! Many in the deaf community are happy with their lives and don’t see their deafness as a negative attribute. They can communicate via sign language and can still sense the world via touch and sight. So this idea of ‘fixing hearing loss’ can make it sound like those who are deaf are ‘broken’, when they are living healthy lives. In my opinion we, as humans, are designed to be able to hear. So the lack of hearing technically would be a defect, however many of us suffer from different ailments and that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I understand that for many, deafness is not debilitating, and so do not want to have the CI as they are happy the way they are.

When it comes down to it, cochlear implantations are an elective procedure and if you do not wish to have one you are completely within your rights to do so. However some people still see those who have CIs as “betraying the deaf community” when in reality they are just people making the decision that they believe will most benefit themselves, same as those who opt to not get a CIs.

Sex Determination. Just X and Y?

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As humans, our sex is dictated by the combination of our sex chromosomes. XX for females and XY for Males. But other species don’t use X or Y chromosomes and some lack chromosomes completely!

Early reptiles such as the crocodile are one such species. They have no sex chromosomes and therefore their sex is regulated via the environment. On warmer days (temperatures above 32oc) developing crocodiles will follow the male developmental pathway and on cooler days (temperatures bellow 32oc) they will follow a female developmental pathway. When I first found this out I couldn’t believe it because I thought all sex was determined by genetics but it turns out it isn’t the case for all animals.

So, sex can be determined by either genetics or the environment but can both play a role? The answer is yes! Pogona viticeps can switch between both temperature and genetic determination! Furthermore Pogona doesn’t use X and Y but Z and W chromosomes!