April 4, 2006
Poison birds!
From Stu:
There are five species of pitohui birds and one ifrita in Papua New Guinea that contain homobatrachotoxin, particularly in their skin and feathers. This is the same toxin that is found in poison dart frogs. Apparently the same deadly poisonous alkoloid evolved twice independently.
Jack Dumbacher discovered this while he was a grad student working in Papua New Guinea. He tasted a feather and noticed that it made his mouth go numb. This bird was widely known and collected, but noone else had tasted it before. He then made the discovery of the first poisonous bird known to western science.
Anecdotal gustatory exploration...
April 3, 2006
Lab grown bladder implant a success
I just can't get over this. Scientists grew bladders in their lab and implanted them 4 years ago and they're functioning fine. Apparently they made a biodegradable "bladder-shaped scaffold" and put the muscle and bladder cells on it, let it cook for two months, and - viola! - bladder.
They're currently growing a heart and a pancreas as well.