Bleeding Fiction

I spent the better part of my life avoiding math and science. I pretty much absolutely hated the shit, mostly because I had to deal with it academically. I had to learn theory and fact, I had to implement and solve equations. My response, predictably, was to whine that "there's nothing happening in math, there's no story in science." Far better, I thought, to study history and literature, to learn about the passion of human struggle, failure and triumph.

By and large I do still feel that way, but as I've had to confront science on a more personal level in the past few years through my mother's medical struggles and as science fact becomes more and more like science fiction, in other words as science becomes a story, the wall in my head that keeps me from valuing math and science has been slowly breaking down. Most notably, manic British comic author (and if ever there were a redundant phrase it's that one) Warren Ellis frequently excerpts articles from British magazine New Scientist at his research blog, die puny humans, and I've got to say I get seriously excited about some of the shit he cites. So much so that I've taken to reading the New Scientist headlines as part of my daily Visitations. I'm not going to start quoting them here regularly - that's Warren's thing, not mine - but it's worth sharing one of the stories that has gotten me excited over the past few days:

Blood could generate body repair kit. A small company in London, UK, claims to have developed a technique that overturns scientific dogma and could revolutionise medicine. It says it can turn ordinary blood into cells capable of regenerating damaged or diseased tissues... the founder of TriStem, says that by adapting standard culturing methods she has managed to turn white blood cells into heart, nerve, bone, cartilage, smooth muscle, liver and pancreatic cells... It would avoid the ethical issues associated with embryonic stem cells.

This news story comes courtesy of Erik. It describes an invisibility cloak developed in Japan that "works by projecting an image onto itself of what is behind the wearer. A computer generates the image that is projected, so the viewer effectively sees 'through' the cloak."

You can see videos of the cloak in action here and here.

Cool as this sounds, the technology isn't yet up to the point where it's self-contained; it still requires a camera behind the cloak-wearer to receive the visual data and a projector in front of him to project it onto the cloak, as explained here, in effect making the thing a sort of really complex projection screen. Right now the plans are to use the thing in walls (to open up otherwise windowless office space), airplanes and cars (to allow pilots/drivers to see more easily into their blind spots), but as technology develops further we'll get suits with cameras and processors built-in, and the whole thing's just going to get fun.

Delightfully, because this is Japan we're talking about, the developer's website lists Masamune Shirow's manga/movie Ghost in the Shell as a reference. In keeping with my recent thoughts, Ghost in the Shell has a strong element of transhumanism to it, with its key theme being the question of what it means to be human versus what it means to be a machine. Incidentally, a second Ghost in the Shell movie, Innocence, debuted at the Cannes film festival and is slated for a limited release in the States this September and a Ghost in the Shell tv series, Stand Alone Complex, begins its dvd release in late July.

I told you! I fuckin' told you! I've been saying it for years, but did you believe me? No! Well now you'll see! You'll all see!

Witness, as my proof, the article in New Scientist titled "Primate shortage could slow medical advances," wherein you will discover that "Not enough apes and monkeys are being bred for scientific research, and the shortfall could be slowing ground-breaking advances into neurological disease, HIV, drug development and genetics."

Why must we slow down the progress of science? Why must people be so backwards? "[T]he US now breeds fewer than 100 Indian-rhesus monkeys each year." Fewer than one hundred? Madness!

We need more monkeys, people! More! Go out and do your part! Breed those monkeys!

Stem-cell research is important to me. I've said this before. I've mentioned new organs and fluids, made from your own substance and guaranteed never to be rejected. I've mentioned the strokes, siezures and weakness of mind and body that I hope I can avoid. I don't know if I've expressed enough how important this is to me. Let me try now.

When an organ gives out on you, things change. There's a hole inside you. And you know that a lot of your friends and family could fill it, if they wanted to. If they could bring themselves to make that sacrifice. It's a big sacrifice to make, there's no denying that, but it's not like it'd kill them.

You, on the other hand, you're dying. Without that organ, you've only got a matter of years. And when you think about that you look at your friends and family, people you've known your whole life, who've stood by you through every break up, through every move and new job and every piece of crap that life can throw at you and who swear they'll stand by you through this, too, but who just can't bring themselves to give up an organ.

You look at them and you hate them. You think about every good turn they've done you, every hug they've given, every time they've made you laugh, every dollar they loaned you when you were desperate, every ride they gave you, every time they watched your kids and every time they just gave you their shoulder while you cried and you push all of that out of your mind and you hate them with every fiber of your being. Because they are letting you die.

And then, hating the people who are closest to you in all the world, you have to find a way to look yourself in the mirror the next morning.

There are certain people out there who feel that it's acceptable for this to happen. They claim to believe, rightly or wrongly, that an embryonic stem cell is alive and possesses a soul. They are making traditional cloning research in this country exceedingly difficult. They would like to make it impossible.

I want to believe that what they want will never happen. I believe that, as Victor Hugo wrote, "No army can withstand the strength of an idea whose time has come." I hope that, if it's ever necessary, doctors can create new organs and fluids from my own body in order to let me live. I believe, very strongly, that we can find a way to fight against, or at least work around, every epidemic of cowardice and ignorance and fear. Science may have now done just that:

A trick that persuades human eggs to divide as if they have been fertilised could provide a source of embryonic stem cells that sidesteps ethical objections to existing techniques. . . �Embryos� created by the procedure do not contain any paternal chromosomes � just two sets of chromosomes from the mother � and so cannot develop into babies.

Oh, that's right. Credit where it's due. Who wants to start a fight club? 'Cause I'd totally fuck you up:

Left-handed people may be better equipped for close range mortal combat than those who rely on their right hands, according to researchers.

I just checked the news and it turns out that, for once, the news is good.

I'm not stupid enough to think this really means anything. There's still the Senate to worry about, and an asshole with a veto stamp after that, but this thing that just happened, this is good and I don't want to hear about any of the rest of it.

I'm crying about this. I mean, there are actual tears tracking down my cheek right now.

"Congratulations" isn't really the right thing to say to me here - I mean, I didn't do anything, there's nothing to congratulate me on - but say something nice to me right now, please, because I'm really fucking happy about this, and I want people to be happy with me.

New Scientist continues to provide me with articles that make me happy. Stem cells. Extract 1 cell from an 8-celled bit and the thing can still survive. Overcome ethical objections. As previously stated: yay.

A dude at the University of Pennsylvania's Center for Bioethics feels the need to bring me down: "It is politically naive to talk about alternatives, and this terminology undermines the moral stance of scientists pursuing the other techniques," he says. "If you hint that it might solve the moral dispute, you're providing ammunition for opponents, so it’s essential to back the original stance."

He has a point, of course. I don't much like the idea of a bunch of scientists throwing up their hands and saying "okay, okay, sure, traditional stem-cell research is unethical." Because that's giving in; it's not helpful. It's important to hold to your convictions, important to keep up the argument.

But at the same time, what happens when these scientists hold their ground in the current climate? Well, considering how much research funding isn't going to the traditional lines of stem-cell research right now, they're sure as hell not doing research. So, they more or less stop being scientists and become politicians and lobbyists instead.

We already have enough of those. Better, I figure, to do the research you can do while the political climate shifts along its merry way back into something more normal.

Some monkey societies are advanced enough to have police. What I want to know is, do they still call them pigs? Is there racial profiling of orangutans? And why do monkeys need cops if the monkeys won't steal for you to begin with?

Presented with great joy, but without comment, from New Scientist:

Bladders engineered in the laboratory from patients' own cells and then implanted into the body have succeeded in their first clinical trial ... Growing organs from a patient's own cells means the organs are not rejected after transplantation.

To create the new bladders, the researchers took a biopsy from patients whose bladders functioned poorly due to an inherited nervous system disorder. The team then placed muscle cells and cells from the bladder lining on a biodegradable bladder-shaped scaffold and allowed them to grow for about two months.

The scaffolds were made of the structural protein collagen, in some cases adding polyglycolic acid, a polymer used in surgical sutures.

Just in case anyone still doubts that global warming is a reality, I've got a few facts for you. Syracuse, NY is the 4th snowiest city in the continental US, with an average January snowfall of 30.3 inches. January, by the by, is traditionally Syracuse's snowiest month; the normal average temperature is 22.7 degrees.

Today's high? 70 degrees.

I didn't wear a jacket today. At all.

Jesus Christ. I mean... Jesus Christ!

Countdown: 52 days