The Miraculous NASA Breakthrough That Could Save Millions of Lives
http://gizmodo.com/5882725/the-miraculous-nasa-breakthrough-that-could-save-millions-of-lives
Thanks to Erik for the link!
When I was young I was a fervent supporter of NASA because of all the amazing things they had done. Then along comes Mars probe that destroy itself because someone used miles instead of kilometers, the Hubble telescope that can’t see because they wanted to save a couple of hundred grand (on a multi-billion dollar project) and didn’t test the mirror and countless other idiocies (the space shuttle being high on that list, though when I was young, didn’t understand rocketry as well and hadn’t researched the economics it sounded like a fabulous idea). I have been favoring the chorus that NASA is unable to effectively accomplish its mission (indeed, its ‘mission’ has become clouded as well) and thus its budget should come under intense scrutiny (but I have also vacillated). However, something like the product discussed in the article above gives me reason to think that not all the money spent at NASA is totally wasted.
BTW, I had a somewhat analogous idea and always meant to talk to people about it. One of the reasons transplant tissues/organs are rejected is because our immune system identifies the cells therein as foreign and mobilizes the exact same response that protects us from viral or bacterial infections. However, if you blocked the immune system from access to the cells (done in the article by embedding the cells in a block of carbon nano-tubes; in my idea the cells would be embedded in an equivalent of dialysis tubing) then as long as the cells got the nutrients they needed to survive (the vast bulk of those nutrients are small enough to freely diffuse across the afore mentioned barriers) everyone would be happy. Of course, like so many of my ideas, I never pursued it (I have tried to get grants for biotech research and it seems clear that without a relevant PhD and an extensive track record of relevant publications AND an already existing well-funded laboratory (ain’t that a Catch-22!), one is not seriously considered at all), but what the article describes seems like something with a rather high potential for success. The only thing I could see that might be problematic is the pores on the container might get clogged by scar tissue or some other biological material thus keeping the nutrients from diffusing in and the molecule(s) of interest from diffusing out. It sure would be cool if it worked! It would solve so many chronic medical conditions.
