Mood:
mischieviousTopic: Scientific Progress...
Not the everyone doesn't already know that men are pigs, but one research group at Purdue is taking that adage to a whole 'nother level.
Collagen-laden ECM from a walking side of ham did that? Who knew: despite not posessing proper hands, as such, a pig has still somehow managed to give a person the finger!
...no, nothing on that one? Not a chuckle, at least? Alright, fine...
This really surprises me: a ground-up sprinkling of dried pig bladder kick-started a body into action. Basically this schmo's finger healed itself before it could get plastered over with dense, crusty, irrevocable scar tissue (think about an abandoned building being purchased and renovated before it can be demolished to make way for a parking lot).
Assuming those picture that go along with the story are legit then this is major news: the damage in that one photo is clearly catostrophic, but then there's that nearly-perfect finger (nail and all) in the other one.
And, like the story says, no skin-grafts. No surgery. No cuts and blood...
I personally thought that the next big breakthrough in body-part regeneration would involve accelerated growth of adult clonal cell colonies extracted directly from the patient in question (eg: Justin's 'test-tube-grown skin', pg 8) but this is really cool: regenerating fairly complex body parts (fingers ain't simply a mess of flesh, after all) without invasion. With, metaphorically, the touch of a wand.
With, quite literally, the sprinkling of some pixie dust.
This is something to watch. Consequently, given the astouding sci-fi quality of the story, it's suitable that they're calling this stuff mined from the insides of these animals 'pixie dust', 'cause I wouldn't image getting results like these when pigs flied.
Scientific Progress goes down to the corner store to get some bacon to slather on that old wakeboarding injury...
