Thinking Beyond Science

 Modeling any one part of the heart’s behavior would strain a supercomputer, modeling the whole interwoven cycle is impossible.

In heart, blood courses from chamber to chamber, squeezed by contracting muscles behind and then stretching the walls ahead. Fibrous valves slam shut against the back flow.

Trial and Errors have enabled us to create artificial heart valves.

But the natural heart valve, the flimsy, translucent arrangement of three tiny parachute like cups, to let the blood into heart’s pumping chamber must work flawlessly.

To keep blood from backing up when the hearts pump it forward, the valve must fill and slammed closed under the pressure without breaking or tearing, during 2 or 3 billions times a day.

But artificial products are not so perfect. By changing the patterns of fluid flow in the heart, artificial valves creates area of turbulence and area of stagnation, when blood stagnates, it forms clots; when clots breaks off and travel to brain, they cause stroke.

The mathematicians have found out that the heart adds a new level of complexity to the standard fluid flow problem, because any realistic model must take unto account the elasticity of the heart walls themselves.

Instead of flowing over a rigid surface, like air flow over airplane wing, blood changes the heart surface dynamically and non linearly, battling all the ups and downs of our normal day to day life.

Chaos by James Gleick