Intensive Care Network Podcasts

Basic Science Clinic by Steve Morgan & Sophie Connolly We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows anything about science and technology. Carl Sagan Welcome to Basic Science Clinic Raw Science episode 4. We are close to embarking on the descent down the oxygen cascade, en route we will examine the key contributors to these stepwise decrements in oxygen partial pressure that coax the gas down to the level of the mitochondria. To grasp the concepts essential to the physiology of this pathway you need to understand the fundamentals of gas behaviour, enter the gas laws.   In this pod we will cover: Boyle’s, Charles’, Guy-lussac’s laws Avogadro’s number Dalton’s and Henry’s laws Saturated vapour pressure & boiling point The concept of in vivo partial pressures    Raw Science Factoids Increasing ambient pressure from 1 to 2 atm will decrease the volume of 1L water by 400 mmHg and FiO2 1.0 gives PiO2 > 2000 mmHg, resulting in tissue hyperoxia. Opening