full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Bill Schutt: How do blood transfusions work?

Unscramble the Blue Letters


Up to this point, all transfusions had occurred in real time, directly between two individuals. That’s because blood begins to clot almost immediately after coming into contact with air— a defense mhsieancm to prevent excessive blood loss after injury.

In 1914, researchers discovered that the chemical sodium citrate seopptd blood cltaniaougg by removing the calcium necessary for clot famortoin. Citrated blood could be stored for later use— the first step in making lagre slace blood transfusions possible. In 1916, a pair of American scientists found an even more effective anticoagulant called heparin, which works by deitvaaicntg enzymes that enable clotting. We still use hpiraen today.

Open Cloze


Up to this point, all transfusions had occurred in real time, directly between two individuals. That’s because blood begins to clot almost immediately after coming into contact with air— a defense _________ to prevent excessive blood loss after injury.

In 1914, researchers discovered that the chemical sodium citrate _______ blood ___________ by removing the calcium necessary for clot _________. Citrated blood could be stored for later use— the first step in making _____ _____ blood transfusions possible. In 1916, a pair of American scientists found an even more effective anticoagulant called heparin, which works by ____________ enzymes that enable clotting. We still use _______ today.

Solution


  1. scale
  2. coagulating
  3. formation
  4. large
  5. heparin
  6. mechanism
  7. stopped
  8. deactivating

Original Text


Up to this point, all transfusions had occurred in real time, directly between two individuals. That’s because blood begins to clot almost immediately after coming into contact with air— a defense mechanism to prevent excessive blood loss after injury.

In 1914, researchers discovered that the chemical sodium citrate stopped blood coagulating by removing the calcium necessary for clot formation. Citrated blood could be stored for later use— the first step in making large scale blood transfusions possible. In 1916, a pair of American scientists found an even more effective anticoagulant called heparin, which works by deactivating enzymes that enable clotting. We still use heparin today.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
immune response 2
antibodies latch 2
blood transfusions 2
donor cells 2


Important Words


  1. american
  2. anticoagulant
  3. begins
  4. blood
  5. calcium
  6. called
  7. chemical
  8. citrate
  9. citrated
  10. clot
  11. clotting
  12. coagulating
  13. coming
  14. contact
  15. deactivating
  16. defense
  17. discovered
  18. effective
  19. enable
  20. enzymes
  21. excessive
  22. formation
  23. heparin
  24. immediately
  25. individuals
  26. injury
  27. large
  28. loss
  29. making
  30. mechanism
  31. occurred
  32. pair
  33. point
  34. prevent
  35. real
  36. removing
  37. researchers
  38. scale
  39. scientists
  40. sodium
  41. step
  42. stopped
  43. stored
  44. time
  45. today
  46. transfusions
  47. works