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Updated: Aug 8, 2026

A Protocol for Bioinspired Design: A Ground Sampler Based on Sea Urchin Jaws
Published on: April 24, 2016
[Innovations from the Baltic Sea region: Nils Alwall, Lembit Norviit, Adolfs Martins Steins and the artificial
Nils Hansson1, Juris Salaks2, Friedrich H Moll3
1Institut für Geschichte, Theorie und Ethik der Medizin, Centre for Health and Society, Medizinische Fakultät, Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf, Moorenstr 5, 40225, Düsseldorf, Deutschland. nils.hansson@hhu.de.
Abstract:
In connection with the construction of one of the first practical dialysis machines, medical historians emphasize the work of the Swedish physician Nils Alwall. Together with his colleagues, he developed a device in the 1940s that could implement the combination of dialysis and ultrafiltration with membranes (cellophane tubes). Little known is the involvement of the physicians Lembit Norviit from Estonia and Adolfs Martins Steins from Latvia, both coauthors of the influential research article Clinical extracorporeal dialysis of blood with artificial kidney that was published in The Lancet in 1948 and the transfer of knowledge between Estonian, Latvian and Swedish researchers.

