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Nitinol is cool

My son just had a nitinol plug placed in a small heart defect via a catheter. The mesh deforms to fit in the catheter at ambient temperatures, and then reforms to the plug shape at body temperature. And they’re hand-woven by Peruvian women because of the complexity of the design. Absolutely mind-blowing stuff!

Wow. That's beautiful. Thanks for letting us know about a real-world use for nitinol.

I wish your son all the best.

I thought efficient air-conditioning using Nitinol[1] was exciting, With boring static titanium implants fusing my C1-C3 I find your son's nitinol plug in the heart weaved by the Peruvian women mind blowing. Where can I learn more about that tech?

[1] https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2021/07/21/...

Thank you! He's doing great. Instead of a monthslong recovery from open heart surgery, he walked out of the hospital the next day and was back at school the following week. It was a relatively small defect, so the operation was really just to lower his lifetime risk of endocarditis.

I seem to have misremembered the country--it's Bolivia, not Peru. My apologies to the very talented weavers. Interesting article about it here: https://www.bbc.com/news/health-32076070

Thank you!

The nitinol in TFA actually becomes pretty hot; around 100 degrees Celsius.

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