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This week’s comic demonstrates the value of having an editor. (not that there was ever doubt!) Below is from the original draft of “st3v on site”…
Tail-less cat? Mighty slug? See st3v’s improved design and a BONUS PUZZLE at the bottom of this email!
-Steve
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Antenneye
100 legs + 0 eyes + thermal-vision = centipedes! Researchers recently discovered how they do it.
Many species don’t have eyes or light sensitive proteins
Their antennae heat up faster than the rest of the body
Tin-foil hats were tailored to test antennae responsiveness
Foiled centipedes had a harder time finding dark areas to hide, confirming the antennae’s “vision” role. BRTNaC1, the unique gene responsible for this centi-sight, appears to have evolved independent of similar proteins. No word on how the hats affect critter 5G reception.
Heart Life
An existing drug can keep hearts alive longer outside a body. Scientists found a way to slow the build up of succinate in cold-storage hearts.
Currently donated hearts survive ~4 hours without a body
Succinate can trigger damage that leads to heart failure
Itaconate, found in valproic acid, neutralizes this build-up
Human and pig hearts treated with valproic acid produced antioxidants and anti-inflammatory proteins that reduced succinate stress. Future trials will aim to double the shelf life of human hearts. So uh, happy belated valentine’s day!
Lab Grown Heart
Heart Life reminded me of this cool story from TCK #57
Some people grow tomatoes, others grow hearts. Researchers successfully grew a pumping mini-left ventricle in a lab.
Grown using real heart muscle cells
Electric pulses controlled beat patterns
Contains 3 layers of cells (full-sized human hearts have 11)
Lab-grown hearts give us the opportunity to reverse-engineer our complex organ. Researchers will scale up as they learn how to mimic other systems, like including blood vessels for oxygen transport. In other words, their love is growing.
Clickables
Ants acting like humans in a grocery store
Bezos transformed “moon dust”
Zombie pigeons take flight
Customers are NOT loving McDonald’s AI
Award-winning nature pics (I thought #14 was a dino)
st3v on site
Centipede Shoes
After learning about tin-foil centipede hats, st3v pitched his shoe idea to Shark Tank.
BONUS PUZZLE: Can you find all the unique “shoes”? Reply to this email to get the answer!
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Missed last week’s Convo?
Catch-up here: 💬Bat Whiskers | Rat Brains | Fishy Flyer
The coolest STEM news from last week 🧵
🦇 How bat's whiskers help them eat
🐀 Human-rat hybrid brain
🐟 Flying fish drone explores sea and sky+ a cartoon at the end!
Check it out! 👇
theconvokit.beehiiv.com/p/bat-whiskers…— Steve 💬 (@_SteveBurgess)
1:50 PM • Feb 11, 2023
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