This volume contains eight chapters covering a wide range of topics: ultrasonic vibration potentials, impedance measurements, photo electrochemical kinetics, chlorine production, electrochemical behavior of titanium, structural properties of membranes, bioelec troche mistry, and small-particle effects for electrocatalysis. Chapter 1, contributed by Zana and Yeager, discusses the little used but potentially important area of ultrasonic vibration potentials. The authors review the historical literature and the associated theoretical equations. They continue by discussing various aspects of the experimental technique and close with a review of the existing studies. They conclude by noting that vibra tion potentials may be useful for determining the effects of various agents on colloidal suspensions found in such important industries as paper production. Chapter 2 is a review of impedance techniques, written by Macdonald and McKubre. The authors include not only derivations of various impedance functions for electrochemical systems but also particularly useful discussions of instrumental methods. The authors close with an interesting claim: "the distribution of current and potential within a porous battery or fuel-cell electrode and within 'flow-through' electrodes is best analyzed in terms of the frequency dispersion of the impedance." Chapter 3, by Khan and Bockris, is a timely review of photo electrochemical kinetics and related devices. Their work begins by reviewing critically important papers on photoelectrochemical kinetics. They continue by presenting detailed discussions concern ing the conceptual ideas of the semiconductor-solution interface.
The term "technological fix" should mean a fix provided by technology--a solution for all of our problems, from medicine and food production to the environment and business. Instead, technological fix has come to mean a cheap, quick fix using inappropriate technology that usually creates more problems than it solves. This collection sets out the distinction between a technological fix and a true technological solution. Bringing together scholars from a variety of disciplines, the essays trace the technological fix as it has appeared throughout the twentieth century. Addressing such "fixes" as artificial hearts, industrial agriculture and climate engineering, these essays examine our need to turn to technology for solutions to all of our problems.
A comprehensive history of the development of artificial hearts in the United States. Artificial hearts are seductive devices. Their promissory nature as a cure for heart failure aligned neatly with the twentieth-century American medical community’s view of the body as an entity of replacement parts. In Artificial Hearts, Shelley McKellar traces the controversial history of this imperfect technology beginning in the 1950s and leading up to the present day. McKellar profiles generations of researchers and devices as she traces the heart’s development and clinical use. She situates the events of Dr. Michael DeBakey and Dr. Denton Cooley’s professional fall-out after the first artificial heart implant case in 1969, as well as the 1982–83 Jarvik-7 heart implant case of Barney Clark, within a larger historical trajectory. She explores how some individuals—like former US Vice President Dick Cheney—affected the public profile of this technology by choosing to be implanted with artificial hearts. Finally, she explains the varied physical experiences, both negative and positive, of numerous artificial heart recipients. McKellar argues that desirability—rather than the feasibility or practicality of artificial hearts—drove the invention of the device. Technical challenges and unsettling clinical experiences produced an ambivalence toward its continued development by many researchers, clinicians, politicians, bioethicists, and the public. But the potential and promise of the artificial heart offset this ambivalence, influencing how success was characterized and by whom. Packed with larger-than-life characters—from dedicated and ardent scientists to feuding Texas surgeons and brave patients—this book is a fascinating case study that speaks to questions of expectations, limitations, and uncertainty in a high-technology medical world.