The Science & Technology Group

Organising committee:  Tanya Dempster, Paul McKay, Bill Devitt, Kurt and Lynda Kovach - science@ashbyu3a.co.uk -

This group is for both people who have a general interest in science as well as those whose careers have been in this area. We meet monthly with talks given mainly by members on a mixture of science/ engineering topics, some science news, information about famous scientists, good YouTube ideas and even the occasional practical activity.

We normally meet in the main hall at Packington Village Hall, High Street, Packington LE65 1WJ on the 2nd Tuesday of the month at 2pm.
Parking is limited, so please try to car-share if possible.

Tuesday 9th September.

'How to Mend a Broken Heart' by Professor Catrin Rutland from Nottingham University.

There was a good attendance to hear this fascinating talk which was clearly of interest to our audience. Especially as 2 out of 3 families are affected by heart disease. For dogs this ranges from 10% for young dogs to 75% for older dogs.

Yet 90% of this disease is preventable. The problem is we are not good at predicting who is likely to have this problem until they have a heart attack. Science is trying to fill this gap.

Professor Rutland showed us the variation in her heart rate (measured on a smart watch) between when she was running and when she received sad news.

Surprisingly all animals have a heart the same size in relation to their body size. We have a heart which is 0.6% of our body mass and this is shared by all other animals. During an average lifetime our heart is likely to beat 2.21 billion times. Normal heart rate for humans is 67 beats per minute, but it can reach 180 beats per minute in stressful situations. By comparison a shrew’s heart beats 835 per minute.

Not all animals have just one heart. Octopi have three hearts. Also a Zebrafish can regenerate its heart.

Catrin has worked extensively with Twycross Zoo and claims that 90% of chimps have heart disease. She has a collection of chimp hearts from all over the world and uses a CT scanner to examine them. Surprisingly many chimp hearts had pieces of bone inside their heart, as many as 40%. This is the body’s attempt to compensate for a heart problem. Apparently 100% of cows have this as well as sheep and goats. They have now identified a human with a bone in the heart, but it is usually associated with really serious heart problems. Some animals will have as many as four bones in their hearts.

She showed us a chicken embryo where the heart grows outside the body while it’s in the shell.

She produced a list of famous people who had died early from heart disease. Elvis Presley died aged just 42. More common were the deaths from cardiomyopathy in marathon runners. They are usually very good at sport when young and don’t feel pain when they run long distances. A recent example was Robert Berry a marathon runner who died aged just 42. The earliest example we have is the Greek runner Philippides who ran 175 miles in just two days to warn the Athenians and died after he gave his message.

Cardiomyopathy is a very common heart disease and exists in 5 forms. Only one of them can be cured, that is broken heart syndrome. This occurs on the death of a close partner. It requires active support from close relatives to overcome this disease.

The other types all relate to thin heart walls or conversely thick heart walls. Many people suffering from this type of heart disease have internal defibrillators fitted which will send a shock to the heart if it stops beating. Another common type of heart disease is atrial fibrillation, which is an irregular heartbeat.

While males tend to have more heart attacks, women tend to get the problem later. Cardiomyopathy can exist at any age and is even found in children.

Catrin runs a teaching hospital to train doctors and vets. They use a range of aids including robotic subjects that can give feedback to students such as that would have killed your patient. Later they use live models for the trainees to work on. Their most famous was a dog AJ who came in regularly and knew exactly what to do to assist the students in learning. After several years they felt they ought to retire AJ but found that he became depressed and they had to reinstate him and slowly scale down his work at the clinic. Apparently, cats do not want to do this sort of work!

Catrin also writes papers for children to explain the heart and its problems. She recommended the “Frontiers for Young Minds” website, aimed at children but also of interest to adults. She also helps to write press releases for news programs as there are so few science journalists to carry out these tasks.

The talk was followed by numerous questions, which reflected the interest in the room. She is quite excited about the possibility of artificial hearts, perhaps printed by a 3D printer, or grown from our own cells.

It was certainly a stimulating and fascinating talk which we thoroughly enjoyed, especially as so many of us are affected by this problem.

Paul announced that our February meeting would be a follow up to this topic with an opportunity to practise CPR and use a defibrillator.

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