Photography And Half-Thoughts By Mitchell Hegman

...because some of it is pretty and some of it is not.

Sunday, March 26, 2017

Squeezing Blood from a Turnip

My grandmother, when describing the process of attempting to glean truth from a dishonest person, would say: “It’s like trying to squeeze blood from a turnip.”
Seemingly impossible, that.
But consider this: plants and humans have in common some 99% of their DNA.  We humans are, put simply, comprised of the same building blocks as a prickly pear cactus.  The end structure—be it human or plant—is a matter of how the blocks are stacked together.  In some cases, say, comparing the perpetually touchy Kanye West to a thistle, the leap from one thing to the next is not so great.
But what if?
What if we could literally squeeze blood from a turnip, or, instead, from spinach?
Scientists working in several labs recently converted a spinach leaf into what is essentially working human heart tissue.  The network of veins already present in spinach leaves are ideal for such conversion.
Watch the video posted below for details.
--Mitchell Hegman
VIDEO LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19UJ4CJCqfw

2 comments:

  1. Wish they'd find a cure for cancer!

    ReplyDelete
  2. There have been some exciting advances in that. But so much more is needed.

    ReplyDelete