Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Recellularized Heart

Popular Science's Best New Innovation of this year in the area of health is the Recellularized Heart, in which a donor heart is stripped of its cells and implanted with the patient's own heart cells. This reminds me more of what you (Prof. Tandon) might be working on than what we've covered, but knowing what we know about the complexity of the heart makes this innovation all the more intriguing. In addition, the rest of the site's innovations are pretty interesting, including a chip that detects proteins in saliva that are present during heart attack.

http://www.popsci.com/bown/2008/product/recellularized-heart

Monday, November 10, 2008

Just a quick blog regarding white meat VS dark meat concerning ducks and geese. take a look at the last line.

"White meat is white because of the chicken's chronic lack of exercise, something to think about next time you're about to curl up in front of the TV for another I Dream of Jeannie rerun. Dark meat, which avian myologists (bird muscle scientists) refer to as "red muscle," is used for sustained activity--chiefly walking, in the case of a chicken. The dark color comes from a chemical compound in the muscle called myoglobin, which plays a key role in oxygen transport. White muscle, in contrast, is suitable only for short, ineffectual bursts of activity such as, for chickens, flying. That's why the chicken's leg meat and thigh meat are dark and its breast meat (which makes up the primary flight muscles) is white. Other birds more capable in the flight department, such as ducks and geese, have red muscle (and dark meat) throughout."
-http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1295/why-is-white-meat-white-and-dark-meat-dark -- November 10 2008

Monday, November 3, 2008

Playing the ECG game kind of reminded me of the game, Trauma Center: Under The Knife.