In 2003 Tawnya Brown was awaiting bowel surgery in a Northern Virginia hospital when she decided to switch beds to be closer to the window. The move ultimately killed her. During surgery, Brown mistakenly received two pints of A-negative blood. She was O-positive. An investigation revealed that a technician had drawn blood from the wrong patient. Within minutes of the procedure, the 31-year-old suffered a fatal hemolytic reaction, which resulted in plunging blood pressure and kidney failure.

Grace LeClair had just finished eating dinner with friends when she got the phone call every parent dreads. The chaplain at the Medical College of Virginia was on the other end. "Your daughter has been in a serious accident. You should come to Richmond right away." LeClair was in Virginia Beach at the time, a two-hour drive from 20-year-old Bess-Lyn, who was now lying in a coma in a Richmond hospital bed.

The friend who was with Bess-Lyn has since filled in the details of that day in March. The two women were bicycling down a steep hill, headed toward a busy intersection, when Bess-Lyn yelled that her brakes weren't working and she couldn't slow down. Her friend screamed for her to turn into an alley just before the intersection. But Bess-Lyn didn't turn sharply enough and crashed, headfirst, into a concrete wall. She wasn't wearing a helmet. By the time the ambulance reached the hospital, Bess-Lyn was officially counted among the 1.5 million Americans who will suffer a traumatic brain injury (TBI) this year.

Launch the slideshow to learn how the seafood bandage works.

When it comes to war wounds, red is dead. Stop the bleeding, and you save the soldier. It´s a simple idea that´s driving a budding industry for fast-acting blood-clotting agents.

Image courtesy Micreon (click to enlarge)

In 1966, Hollywood envisioned a future world where a submarine and its crew could be miniaturized and injected into an ailing Russian scientist to repair a blood clot in his brain. Although the actual future reality of Fantastic Voyage has yet to be realized, the fields of micro- and nano-engineering are expanding rapidly—giving us 50-megahertz computer circuits built onto single carbon nanotube molecules, artificial red blood cells and tiny eyeglasses for houseflies. Wait, what?

Its true. A German micromachining firm (no, not those Micro Machines) created the stylin two-millimeter shades—complete with a tiny engraved mu symbol on the bridge piece—to demonstrate its precise laser-fabrication abilities. More, ahem, practical applications of this technology could lead to ever-tinier computer processors and microscopic biomedical devices. While humans continue to wait for more miraculous scientific developments in microtechnology, near-sighted and style-concious houseflies everywhere can celebrate now. —John Mahoney

Link (via National Geographic).

My heart begins pounding the theme from Jaws, triple tempo, as the shipwreck inches into view. Given the task I face—kicking down 55 feet on a single breath—such anxiety is a perfectly normal response, although precisely the wrong one for a free diver. Fear releases adrenaline, which jacks up the heart rate, constricts blood vessels, and causes rapid, shallow breathing. But if I can relax, an entirely different experience awaits: The exhilaration of probing the deep blue unencumbered by air tanks.