McSweeney’s has an ongoing contest that asks readers to submit convergences, “an unlikely, striking pair of images, along with a paragraph or three exploring the deeper resonances.” I hadn’t personally come across a compelling convergence until today. The top image comes from a special exhibition by coe & waits (of porcelain pinecone fame) for a Toronto hotel.

coe & waito’s hand sculpted, porcelain jellyfish, I’d like you to meet air pockets frozen in place in Lake Bonney in Victoria Land, Antartica.

Truth be told, I’m not sure how “unlikely” this convergence is, really, but I still think it’s neat.

On July 18, 1969, two days before the first lunar landing, presidential speechwriter William Safire composed the following text to be read by President Nixon if astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin were stranded on the moon:

Fate has ordained that the men who went to the moon to explore in peace will stay on the moon to rest in peace.

These brave men, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, know that there is no hope for their recovery. But they also know that there is hope for mankind in their sacrifice.

These two men are laying down their lives in mankind’s most noble goal: the search for truth and understanding.

They will be mourned by their families and friends; they will be mourned by the nation; they will be mourned by the people of the world; they will be mourned by a Mother Earth that dared send two of her sons into the unknown.

In their exploration, they stirred the people of the world to feel as one; in their sacrifice, they bind more tightly the brotherhood of man.

In ancient days, men looked at the stars and saw their heroes in the constellations. In modern times, we do much the same, but our heroes are epic men of flesh and blood.

Others will follow, and surely find their way home. Man’s search will not be denied. But these men were the first, and they will remain the foremost in our hearts.

For every human being who looks up at the moon in the nights to come will know that there is some corner of another world that is forever mankind.

Safire also suggested that Nixon call the “widows-to-be” before the speech, and that a clergyman should commend the astronauts’ souls to the “deepest of the deep” when communications ended.

via the Futility Closet

Rat heart, stripped of cells = ghost rat heart

Dr. Doris A. Taylor of the University of Minnesota did some pretty smart science. In trying to solve the age old how-to of human organ generation, she decided tissue generation, not cell replication, was the root problem. So, she refocused her energy on the difficulty of recreating the 3D structure of the heart - a sticky ham due to the intricate nature the heart’s framework. The solution?

Dr. Taylor and her team washed harvested dead rat hearts, leaving the framework of arteries and valves intact. Next, using the expired heart as a scaffolding, the team injected newborn baby rat heart cells and simulated blood pressure. Within two weeks, they had a beating, electrical impulse conducting, blood pumping zombie rat heart.

Tissue engineers all over their world seem to be thunking their collective forehead at the simple elegance of Dr. Taylor’s solution. Seeding an organ with cells from the recipient helps resolve the issue of implanted organs being rejected by the recipient’s immune system. The ability to use the organs of cadavers as scaffolds for new, viable organs - a coup for transplant doctors, patients and B movie screen writers worldwide.

The implications for humans? Well, first up against the wall are the pigs of the world. Their heart resembles a human heart and, like rats, they are readily available. The next step is to get the heart to pump enough blood to support a body as large as a pig - or human. In this New York Times article, Todd N. McAllister of Cytograft Tissue Engineering in Novato, Calif., had this to say to the New York Times about exporting this advance to humans and other human organs:

The principal problem in escalating it to humans is one of scale, not of cell biology, and that is an easier problem to solve potentially.

So now, instead of inventing the wheel, they just need to make it haul the wagon. Finally, a use for all that science!

“It looks like a ghost heart. And it feels a little like jello.”

Doris Taylor

Amid the many awards Dr. Taylor will receive for her discovery, she seems a shoe-in for the infamous Least Scientific Analogy of the Year. “It looks like what? Ah yes. The old Ghost Heart.” (Seriously though, it does look awesomely spooky–I’m on the zombie rat heart bus).