a mighty gift

Finally, biologists are stepping up, delivering us a weapon that might actually improve our chances in the coming Robot War. No, I'm not talking about semi-intelligent cephalopods with telekinetic eye lasers (though it bears noting that all of the giant squid landings in the last decade have been in the southern hemisphere; perhaps nature realized the danger inherent in placing the largest animal resembling Great Chthulhu in close proximity to a readily available supply of polar bear livers...). I just listened to an episode of my favorite podcast, NPR's "Speaking of Faith," in which Krista Tippett interviewed a Minnesota biologist who reanimated a dead rat's heart. As I understand it, she and her team took said heart, washed it (literally with soap) to remove the dead cells (apparently that leaves a gelatinous superstructure behind; who knew? the biologists), then pumped it full of rat stem cells which proceeded to move in, reproduce... and beat. Now, I'm strongly considering ending this post with some witty reference to "Frankenstein," but, honestly, this is probably one of those things that's cool enough to be its own exclamation point, so here goes: in case you missed it, she reanimated a dead rat's heart.