Hi listeners, Benjamin here. Welcome to the Nature Briefing podcast, the Friday show where we talk about a couple of stories we've read in the Nature briefing, which is, of course, Nature's daily email about the latest science.

And we're recording this in Nature Towers once again, so you might hear the hum of folk working in the background. But we've got an exciting debut today. We've got a new member of the team, Marin Huntsburgh. Maron, how are you doing? Hello, I'm very excited to be on the pod. Thanks for having me, Ben. I am Nature's new senior multimedia producer, and I'm excited to be on the briefing today. Well, very excited to have you here. And we've got a couple of stories to talk about.

But say, given that it's your first. senior multimedia producer, and I'm excited to be on the briefing today. Well, very excited to have you here, and we've got a couple of stories to talk about.

But say, given that it's your first show, why don't you go first?

Oh, thank you. I'm absolutely buzzing. A paper just came out in Cell that has the most amazing top line of the story. Man survives 48 hours without his lungs. How?

Right. Please tell me. The answer is amazing technology. This is a new

technology called a extra corporeal total artificial lung system, of course. TAL for short.

Good. Nice and catchy. Yeah. And what happened is this patient came into the hospital because he had

the flu and this put him into

what's called acute respiratory distress syndrome. Essentially, his lungs were filling with fluid and he couldn't breathe. So what do you do then? You put the patient on a ventilator. You know, many patients during COVID were put on ventilators because of this issue. Unfortunately, ventilators do come with some problems, including the potential of introducing a bacterial infection. Now, you and I are both former microbiologist, Ben, you've heard of pseudomonas

eridinosis. do come with some problems, including the potential of introducing a bacterial infection. Now,

you and I are both former microbiologist, Ben, you've heard of pseudomonas eridinosa, the foe of

medics and doctors worldwide. It is really tricky to get off of a medical device, and it is

often antibacterial resistance. So it's very difficult to treat. So this poor guy, his lungs were

totally failing and turning his entire body septic. So his blood pressure is tanking, his organs are failing. What do you do? You take the lungs out.

And this is clearly a medical emergency then. And this is a drastic step. Absolutely. And it is something that does happen occasionally. So this is what's called a bridge technology to take someone from the point where their lungs have failed and get them to the point where they can get new lungs, where they can receive a lung transplant.

So there is technology that has existed to do this, but it's pretty finicky and it has some problems.

It's really difficult, as some of the researchers who have commented on this project, to, I don't know, keep the heart beating without the lungs, right?

Yeah, they kind of go together, right? Sounds know, keep the heart beating without the lungs, right? Yeah, they

don't go together, right? Sounds tricky. So the technology that already exists to do this is called

ECMO, and it's been around since the 60s and 70s. It's used to keep a patient's heart and lungs

alive and doing stuff while they're really struggling, but it's usually not used when the patient's

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