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Printer FriendlyReprinted with permission from Popular Mechanics, February
2002.
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Breathing Digital Air
A computer model, which shows how fine particles in air pollution move into the nose and through the lungs of a rat, has been developed by scientists at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) in Richland, Wash.
To construct their "virtual respiratory tract" researchers first took magnetic resonance images of a lab rat. These images were analyzed by a computer program called NWGrid. The resulting mathematical model is so detailed that it can track individual particles as they travel within the virtual rat's respiratory system.
Using what is essentially a computerized rat lung, scientists hope to someday simulate how gases, vapors and small particles behave in the lungs of people suffering from cystic fibrosis and asthma.
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