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Each week on the BBC World Service programme The Forum, a global thinker from
the worlds of philosophy, science, psychology or the arts is given a minute to
put forward a radical, inspiring or controversial idea no matter how
improbable that they believe would change the world.
This week, scientist Gillian Leak, a forensic expert on crime scenes, proposes
her idea for man-made blood with many uses.
My suggestion is the development of an artificial blood that can be used in a
variety of ways.
It needs to be cheap to produce and easy to store, doesn t require any type of
refrigeration. In fact, a wide range of temperature won t affect it in any way.
This way it can be used in hot countries like [those in] Africa that have
limited access to refrigeration as well as countries that have more temperate
climates.
There would be a capability to stockpile supplies without any degeneration of
its contents. It would also be incapable of transmitting any sort of disease,
including Aids, and it [could] be shipped in large quantities if necessary to
any major disaster in the world at a moment s notice.
Appropriate drugs could be added to the sample prior to infusion if necessary
to minimise the amount of medical intervention for the patient.
From a forensic perspective, it would also be brilliant if it mimicked the
complex internal structure of blood, behaving in the same manner as real blood
so it could be used for training purposes in the forensic field.