June 19, 2009
1. Machina Carnis, by Trish Adams. Trish took her blood and made a beating heart. In the last presentation of the day, an artist and a stem-cell researcher, Dr. Victor Nurcombe, joined forces to play around with adult stem cells. Namely, hers. Namely, the ones from her blood. Namely, they turned them into a cluster of cardiac cells. I will not go over the details of the ethical hurdles they had to go through to make it happen. All you need to know is: they did. Slack-jawed and teary eyed, I gasped as she showed us the video. Day one, the cells start to stew in a petri dish. Day three, they inject a product in it. Day five, the cells start to cling to each other. Day seven: she watches as they beat, huddled together, like a tiny new heart. Now do you see what I mean about the poetry in all this? No? Please re-read the last sentence.

1. Machina Carnis, by Trish Adams.

Trish took her blood and made a beating heart.

In the last presentation of the day, an artist and a stem-cell researcher, Dr. Victor Nurcombe, joined forces to play around with adult stem cells. Namely, hers. Namely, the ones from her blood. Namely, they turned them into a cluster of cardiac cells.

I will not go over the details of the ethical hurdles they had to go through to make it happen. All you need to know is: they did.

Slack-jawed and teary eyed, I gasped as she showed us the video. Day one, the cells start to stew in a petri dish. Day three, they inject a product in it. Day five, the cells start to cling to each other. Day seven: she watches as they beat, huddled together, like a tiny new heart.

Now do you see what I mean about the poetry in all this? No? Please re-read the last sentence.

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