A team of American scientists and researchers flew to the Mount
Everest region on Friday to set up a laboratory at the base of
the world's highest mountain to study the effects of high
altitude on humans. The team from the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota
says it plans to monitor nine climbers attempting to scale
Everest to learn more about the physiology of humans at high
altitudes in order to help patients with heart conditions and
other ailments. "We are interested in some of the parallels
between high altitude physiology and heart failure physiology,"
Dr. Bruce Johnson, who is heading the team, told The Associated
Press before leaving Nepal's capital, Katmandu, for the
mountain. "What we are doing here will help us with our work
that we have been doing in the (Mayo Clinic) laboratory."
Johnson and the eight other team members flew to the airstrip at
Lukla, near Everest, on Friday. It will take them about a week
to trek to the Everest base camp, with several porters and yaks
helping to carry their 680 kilograms (1