Growing new boobies

 science, youtube  2 Responses »
Apr 032012
 

One of the videos linked to at the end of the “Skin Gun” video on YouTube is what sure plays like a horrible late-night infomercial starring Suzanne Somers. But if it is even halfway accurate, it shows a hell of a thing.

It seems that Somers had stage 1 breast cancer, and the treatment involved basically hollowing out her right breast leaving the skin but apparently nothing under it. Rather than getting an artificial implant, she seems to have grown replacement breast tissue. As shown in the video, the process seems to be remarkably easy (thus very likely meaning that the video oversimplifies something fierce). Fat from her torso was liposuctioned out and then centrifuged, separating fat from “stem cells” (how they got stem cells separated from regular cells was a question left unexplored). The stem cells are then processed in some way (also left unexplored), and then the “stronger” stem cells are mixed back in with the fat, and the whole mess is then injected back into the hollowed-out breast. And that, at least according to the video, is apparently that. My guess would be that the fat settles in and forms a semi-solid “mold” that the stem cells grow into and eventually replace.

The video is, perhaps shockingly, NSFW.

[youtube xt55cTQEoHk]

It would be instructive for doctors to revisit Ms. Somers in future years to see if it really takes hold in the long run. If this sort of thing really works, then the implant industry would seem to have some serious competition… and it would seem that , perhaps combined with the Skin Gun, major reconstructive procedures for those who have been burned or otherwise mangled might be both easier and more successful.

 Posted by at 12:23 pm

Necessity…

 art, awesomeness, blather  3 Responses »
Apr 032012
 

On the first day of my archive expedition a week ago, I was faced with a quandary. Specifically: several folders full of slides showing images I Had To Have… but no way to capture them. The archive had not digitized the slides, and did not have a slide scanner, and I’d failed to bring one. In the end, the standard solution was found: I went out and bought a slide scanner. But while there in the archive, it was unclear if that option would be available to me. So… I MacGyvered a solution together there in the archive that allowed me to snag images. The results were kinda smallish, and it was labor intensive, but it more or less worked. Of course, the next day I had a slide scanner, and the MacGyver solution fell by the wayside.

This is the *third* slide scanner I’ve purchased. The first was a secondary feature of a regular flatbed scanner. It kinda worked… when it wanted to. It would sometimes simply get confused, and the only way to restart it was to reboot the computer. Feh. The second slide scanner would just plain lock up the computer, and the only way to get things running again was to hard-boot the computer. Bah! This string of FAIL turned me off the whole idea of scanning slides… which was unfortunate, since I have a boxload of old family slides that have been awaiting scanning.

The new scanner is a substantial improvement. Instead of plugging into the computer, it’s a stand-alone system that automatically records the images to an SD card. It has run like a champ.

But the image quality… meh.

So yesterday I went back to the MacGyver solution. Instead of cobbling something together in a matter of minutes with whatever I happened to have on hand, this time I was able to use better materials and tools, and the end result seems to me to be *far* better than the slide scanner. For example, here are two takes on the same slide. Both are reduced in size to 35% of the original image (2400X1600 pixels for the scanner, 4288X2848 pixels for the MacGyver Mk. II system):

UPDATE: another take on the MacGyver version, with some tinkering to deal with some focusing issues:

Not only is the Macgyver version about 79% bigger, it’s also brighter and with better color. The scanner version is also pretty badly mucked up with dust and fibers; these were no doubt introduced when the scanner was dumped into the luggage.

The MacGyver Mk. II was assembled using scraps and a few hours work. A Mk. III version, which I’m seriously contemplating, would be lighter, made from fiberglass, and would be made to accept microfiche, microfilm and regular film, something I struggled with earlier iterations of slide scanners with no success. I imagine that several versions of more or less the same thing are available for sale online… but screw that noise, I built my own.

If anyone’s interested in how to build your own, let me know.

 Posted by at 11:02 am

SCIENCE!!!

 awesomeness, science, science fiction, youtube  2 Responses »
Apr 032012
 

Ho. Lee. CRAAAAAAAP….

[youtube eXO_ApjKPaI]

The “Skin Gun,” an airbrush for painting new skin on 2nd degree burn victims. The skin is taken from existing healthy skin from the patient, (apparently cloned), put into a water solution and sprayed into place… and within days, it seems to be healed up and perfectly healthy, no scars.

Note that this is a result of stem cell research. Not fetal stem cells from abortions, but stem cells from the same individual. Fetal stem cells would not work here… or at least, the patient would spend the rest of his/her life on drugs to try to prevent rejection, trashing their immune system.

 Posted by at 9:57 am

Bell Hypersonic Rocket Transport

 aircraft, art, projects, rockets  3 Responses »
Apr 032012
 

In 1960, Bell Aircraft released several paintings depicting a two-stage hypersonic passenger transport. The first stage was a multi-engined supersonic jet of fairly conventional configuration (though with very large 50,000 lb-thrust turboramjet engines), carrying on its back a rocket-powered second stage. The second stage was clearly influenced by Bell work on the Dyna Soar program.

The carrier would transport the second stage to an altitude of 20 miles and 5,300 mph. After release, the second stage would boost to 40 miles and speeds up to 15,000 miles per hour, permitting travel times from Los Angeles to Paris of one hour and four minutes for the thirty passengers on board. The vehicle was intended to enter service in the 1980-1990 timeframe.

Weight for the combined vehicle at takeoff would be 750,000 pounds. Span of the booster was 150 feet, length 200 feet. It’s unclear if this was a serious engineering design or purely speculative. Paintings and a display model show some notable differences.

A high-rez of this can be downloaded HERE.

 Posted by at 9:33 am

Perpetual Ocean

 awesomeness, blather, science, youtube  9 Responses »
Apr 022012
 

Now this is interesting… a NASA-produced video illustrating worldwide ocean currents. A surprising number of “whirlpools,” and while the equatorial Pacific has a rampaging current, the northeastern Pacific seems to be pretty static.

[youtube xusdWPuWAoU]

Also note the Gulf Stream, taking warm water from the Caribbean to Britain. An interesting thought experiment:  a few ex-Soviet citybuster bombs are placed in cargo ships and set off at strategic points in the Panama Canal. The Pacific Ocean is several dozen feet higher than the Atlantic, IIRC, at the canal… take out the locks properly and *perhaps* you could end up with a situation where the Pacific comes roaring through and scoops out a whole new canal. Would the flow be enough to divert the Gulf Stream? Probably not.

Interesting exercise, though.

 Posted by at 8:28 am
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