LABORATORY SERIES. No.10. Iron Lung Ward at Rancho Los Amigos Medical Center during the 1952 Polio epidemic. The Iron Lung was developed as a temporary respiratory aid for polio patients unable to breathe on their own. Subjects, primarily young children, were confined to the airtight chamber from the neck down. Acting as an artificial lung, the apparatus created a negative pressure environment around the subject’s torso allowing the patient’s lungs to expand and contract. Photo: Wikipedia.


LABORATORY SERIES. No.17. Lunchbox Laboratory by Futurefarmers + the Biological Sciences Team, National Renewable Energy Lab. Algae is considered a viable form renewable energy with the potential to produce biodiesel. However, the very abundance of it makes it tedious to determine which strains are most productive. Lunchbox Laboratory is a prototype for a research tool that would be distributed to schools to allow young scientists the chance to initially screen a collection of algae strains. Only the most productive strains would reach official labs. Photo Courtesy of Futurefarmers.