This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology.
Supercooled kidneys have been transplanted into pigs in a “landmark achievement”
When it comes to organ donation, time is everything. As soon as an organ has been removed from a donor’s body, it starts to deteriorate. Surgeons have only a matter of hours to get it into a recipient.
In most cases, organs will be kept on ice during that time, at around 4 °C (39 °F). They cannot be frozen—in previous attempts, ice has formed, causing all kinds of damage.
But now, scientists have come up with a device that allows organs to be cooled to -4 °C (25 °F) without forming any ice. They’ve tested it with pig organs and shown that kidneys, at least, can be preserved in the device for days then
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