I have to say, this innovation made sense to me immediately when I saw it. And it priced at only 5 Euros! This is roughly $1500 USD these days, but still. You all know those cell phone cords piled on the floor or looped across the room are hazardous eyesores.

Go get you one hombre!

via popflower.

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).

According to these guys, Art Lebedev is the creative director of the most famous Russian design house artlebedev.ru. They specialize in unusual modifications of everyday things, like this remote.

Behold, the Pultius. This almost 20 inch aspires to have as many buttons as you have t.v. channels. While I remain unsure as to the ultimate helpfulness of the redesign, I am compelled by the reference to NECCO’s Famous Candy Buttons.

This candy is nothing if not a testament to the power of color and color palettes because, certainly, it wasn’t the taste of the sugar buttons that kept people coming back. And convenience neither because NECCO’s design forced you to gnaw sloppily at a roll of paper to loosen each candy and, invariably, eat the uppermost layer of paper with the candy. Bleck.

And although I never saw anyone come anywhere close to finishing the roll of 98 buttons, I object on principle to the thrifty party favor maker’s tendency to slice a candy buttons roll into more manageable color segments.

First, the things retailed for like 9 cents. Second, as mentioned above, the buttons are valuable as a color set only.

This lady makes a claim on her website that this Cecropia Moth Caterpillar

was the original inspiration for Candy Buttons. She cites no reference for this claim and given that the content of her website is almost totally political, the assertion is doubly strange. But, I’ll take it. May it heretofore become an urban legend of utmost banality.

And finally, in all this reflection on the lasting cultural impact of Candy Buttons, and, perhaps, a certain dotted caterpillar, let us not forget this:

Now available from Run Athletics‘ Arthur Ash line, this Candy Buttons sneak is another iteration of the longevity of the practically inedible candy’s color palette.

And now, if nothing else, you should at least be convinced of the importance of the Pultius in letting bloggers worldwide connect strange dots in the side margins of its enormity.