College kid invents gel that instant stops bleeding.

Could you imagine the implications of this? Battlefield medkits would become insanely effective at saving lives.

At it proves a piece of technology in my book I'm writing vulnerable to Hilarious in Hindsight. Explanation

"Allah may guide their bullets, but Jesus helps those who aim down the sights."

And then some pharmaceutical company buys it, patents it, and prevents it from falling into the hands of those who can benefit from it at all, right?

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This would be so useful for me.

Oh, that's truly fascinating! Strange to think of something as ubiquitous as the bandage being potentially rendered obsolete by nothing more than the ingenious mind of a college student.

Then again, it's clear that he's no...Average Joe.

"And every life is a special story of its own." —The Stargazer, Mass Effect 3

Only if they're stupid. Johnson & Johnson (Band-Aid brand holder) would pay huge money for this kind of innovation since they could put it in every first aid and emergency medical kit in the world pretty much at monopoly and rake in the dough because folks aren't going to stop cutting themselves in the kitchen or being shot on the battlefield or suffering injury of any kind accidentally or otherwise.

They'd be stupid to suppress such innovation and profit potential.

"Allah may guide their bullets, but Jesus helps those who aim down the sights."

It's happened before. (I can't think of any offhand, but I'm kinda tired and can't even think what I had for lunch today right now. When I remember I'll post I guess.)

EDIT: Here's one example.

EDIT 2, ELECTRIC BOOGALOO: Other examples.

REDACTION TRES: And one more from a more credible source.

edited 18th Mar '13 8:42:52 PM by 0dd1

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Also,

O_o Doesn't this violate more than a few ethical guidelines regarding animal cruelty?

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All those examples above involve chronic disease of some sort. Big pharma companies milk out a lot of their profits from selling drugs to deal with chronic, long term diseases, because patients with crhonic illness will need drugs/treatment for a long time, and thus they will have to keep buying stuff from the big pharma companies. Therefore they tend to target more permanent treatments towards to chronic, long term problems because it directly affects their profits. Look at it as "I can either a) keep these patients sick and keep selling them treatments that doesn't actually cure them or b) sell them a one-off treatment that cures them and they will not have to buy from me again". Guess which option they will take (very unethical IMO, but fact).

Meanwhile, for something like this big pharma is far less likely to suppress: cuts and wounds require only one-off treatment, a one-off product, and while they do sell such products do not generate as much profit as something like cancer treatment drugs or diabetes drug (there is a reason why there's a conspiracy theory that pharma companies are allied with the fast food industry). This is similar to the case of anti-biotics, which are also one-off treatments (you take the drug, kill off the infection, and you no longer need the anti-biotics anymore). In fact, big pharma companies sees these products are "worthy to have, but not worth putting money to develop", (btw, this is why drug-resistant bacteria are such a big problem: anti-biotics are not financially viable to dump money in to develop). So for something like an instant gel that stops bleeding, they would not invest money to develop this themselves and, now that somebody else have developed it, they would be interesting in buying it off from them and selling it for themselves and get around the cost of development.

edited 18th Mar '13 9:28:24 PM by IraTheSquire

I wouldn't be surprised if this is still incredibly expensive.

Also, since testing isn't over, I assume they are going to run into problems with internal bleeding for improperly sealed wounds and blood circulation for veins which were sealed too tightly. Just a thought.

Reminds me of Felidae. Only with rats, instead of cats. If, in several years, a rat appears that wants to eradicate all humanity, you know who to thank for that.

Me, I'm skeptical (that it comes from a news source, with a less than good reputation doesn't help). That sounds too good to be true. Even if it becomes practical and useful to humans some time, there is probably still a lot of work to be done, until it is so.

People aren't as awful as the internet makes them out to be.

Major wounds would still require a doctor to work them over. The benefit of the gel is that it keeps the person from bleeding out in the middle of a gunfight and on the way to the hospital.

Standing on the edge of the crater...

Well, yeah.

I'm also skeptical that the gel actually heals wounds. The description only mentions that it's an isolated clotting agent.

Also, since it's actually poured into the wound rather than sealing the skin on top, there's the question of how the doctors will get it out of the wound to prevent any complications.

Ahh, medical science.

To pity someone is to tell them "I feel bad about being better than you."

To be fair, this would make amputations a lot easier.

Well, normally a biomedical product has to go through several clinical trials before it gets onto the market, and even so technically speaking even in market it is still in trial (stage 4, from memory).

I think the kid has cut maybe a couple years off a whole 10 years it takes from idea to commercialisation?

Dammit New York, always giving me reasons not to hate you.

I will just dislike you with a grudging respect from now on.

Modified Ura-nage, Torture Rack

No, not if the benefits to knowing the results are great enough.

Also, I'm not sure if rats are subject to animal cruelty laws, anyway. Some tests that have been done on lab rats are far more brutal than that.

"It's so hard to be humble, knowing how great I am."

I don't think the gel is meant to actually heal the wound. It's just for clotting and stopping bleeding. They'll have to work out a lot of technicalities like getting the gel out of the body before it can go to market.

"Steel wins battles. Gold wins wars."

In the linked article, the inventor claimed it could accelerate the healing process.

Yes, well, a general claim is not the same as a proven claim.

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Mm, doesn't sound like there would be a problem...

Can't tell if sarcasm or not. [/notabiologymajor]

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So, what pieces of fiction use gel to heal wounds? Becuase we are now a step closer to them.
I know Halo has biofoam. So we better start looking out for the Covenant.

They do have medals for almost, and they're called silver!

The gel itself is inspired by Mass Effect's Medi-Gel, according to another article.

"It's so hard to be humble, knowing how great I am."

WWE has wound closing medical glue, though I have only seen it used once.

edited 25th Mar '13 12:03:56 PM by Cider

Modified Ura-nage, Torture Rack