"The Wyss Institute’s Human Organ Chips were developed to address this problem, and have been shown to faithfully replicate the functions of many different human organs in the lab, including the lung."
How?
I understand you can design stuff to mimic something we know how it works. I'm more skeptical about how we can design something and then say that we conclusively discovered some new functionality without having tested it in the real thing.
> I'm more skeptical about how we can design something and then say that we conclusively discovered some new functionality without having tested it in the real thing.
I agree with you in principle but organ chips are a progress, at least because it takes in account things like 3D space, mechanical forces, fluids movements, signaling between cells, and they use real human cells.
The cheap and common alternative used in most biology papers is to used 2D static groups of immortalized cells (Cells that are not anymore human by any aspect) and pretend to have discover fundamental aspects of human biology.
In my opinion, organ chips are a good way to conceptualize, think about a problem and make experimentation. For example scientists can compare some aspects of a human lung with the behavior of the organ chip
This isn't surprising. The fastest way to get dangerous foreign materials in the lungs out of them is obviously to exhale them.
If proven this would mesh nicely with my own anecdotal experiences. I've been treating my own respiratory illnesses at home for the better part of a decade under this assumption, and that includes three moderate cases of COVID-19 so far. Even if it's cold I spend as much time as I can outside in the open air. I usually recover in about half the time I would if I stayed indoors.
How?
I understand you can design stuff to mimic something we know how it works. I'm more skeptical about how we can design something and then say that we conclusively discovered some new functionality without having tested it in the real thing.