Researchers Explode Celery to Learn About Shock Waves and Brain Damage

• bombs
• warfare
• health
• medicine
• brain
• vegetable
• research
• tech watch

Armored vehicles enable U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan to survive roadside explosive attacks. But the shock waves from such blasts have left survivors with traumatic brain injuries. It is difficult to study how to mitigate these injuries: The lab dummies typically used in such research are good for measuring blunt trauma, but they are largely unaffected by the effects of shock waves, according to Dr. Mark George, a neurologist at the Medical University of South Carolina.

To measure such effects, George and vehicle manufacturer Force Protection used C-4 to blast Tupperware containing live celery suspended in gelatin. The veins of celery resemble the myelin sheath that carries impulses along human neurons. After each blast (left), the team analyzed the vegetables and discovered that they had tiny vascular tears that resembled damage in a brain suffering from shock-wave-induced trauma. The next step: integrating the findings into full-scale test dummies.

Photo Gallery
+ CLICK PHOTOS TO ENLARGE

Comment Title
Your Name
Email Address
Website	make public
Comment
Please enter the characters shown below:
	Make sure your comment is relevant to the topic discussed. Comments not relevant to the topic will be deleted. Neither you nor Popular Mechanics has the ability to make your e-mail address public. However, we ask that you submit your e-mail address to us just in case we need to contact you. Thank you for your understanding--The Editors.