Mend A Broken Heart

Talkin' bout regeneration: scientists work on regrowing limbs and organs

Mount Desert Island in Maine is best known for its lobster shacks, a remarkable concentration of old money (think Rockefellers and Astors), and the legions of tourists who enjoy the hilly, forested wonders of Acadia National Park. But when I visited a few days ago, I was most struck by a remarkable collection of wooden houses in Salisbury Cove, at the north end of the island.

Established 113 years ago to provide a ready supply of creatures for scientific research, the Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory is one of the few established in the 19th century that still endures. In one tank, dogfish sharks circle round, nosing to the surface now and again. Smaller tanks nearby contain killifish, which have mastered the remarkable feat of enjoying both fresh and salt water. The experts here are studying the proteins the fish use to handle salt, which can provide insights into how our cells perform the same feat – or don’t, in the case of cystic fibrosis.

He is now focused on lampreys, primitive eel-like parasites that use their big sucker-like mouths to latch on to prey and drain their blood. These living fossils have been largely unchanged for 360 million years – and have an ancient quirk that fascinates the professor. In adult lampreys, the plumbing between liver and intestine breaks down, but yet-to-be determined transporter proteins provide alternative pathways for excretion of toxic bile. This could help find treatments for the one in 10,000 babies born with a similar condition, known as biliary atresia.

A second video begins with a close-up of the tail fin of a zebra fish, a complex arrangement of blood vessels and various kinds of tissue. Cut the tail off and this complex living fan rapidly grows back in around two weeks.

But perhaps the most remarkable regenerative trick of all can be found in the zebrafish’s heart. It is a simplified version of the one that is beating in your chest, with two chambers rather than four. What is astonishing, however, is its ability to deal with damage.

While the rhythms of a human heart can be sent fatally awry by a little scar tissue or a blocked blood vessel, the fish’s little heart can cope with far more severe injuries. Slice off a decent chunk of the chamber and the heart will start to bleed, before being sealed by a clot.

How to Mend a Broken Heart | I am NO Expert, but Self Love is a ...

, Many times in my life and I guess that could be something to “argue” about….

I don’t know why, but even I felt lonely tonight.

I decided to lay in my garden on my bench with loads of cushions, listening to my favourite music, with the sun blinder drawn to catch the rain drops and watching them roll down the blinder to just hit the floor……..

I laid there for ages thinking……. starting to feel the cold……. wishing to share the moment in time with someone…. but also knowing that the greatest gift I can give to myself is loving myself and therefore I wouldn’t feel lonely……….

…………..I am definately no expert and I certainly don’t us who we are? Who we have become? And if you think about it, aren’t you just grateful for all of your experiences? Of who you are? What you have become? NO doubt, I am!!