heart

They say only time heals a broken heart, but Duke University researchers think they can do better. Using embryonic stem cells from mice and their own novel molding technique, a team of researchers at Duke has developed a three-dimensional heart cell “patch” that conducts electrical impulses and contracts, two all important characteristics of heart tissue.

Heartening or horrifying news, depending on your outlook -- the American Heart Association has pledged $50,000 in funding for a student project to develop a CPR teaching program for Nintendo's motion-controlled Wii.

In late 2005, cardiac researcher Doris Taylor revived the dead. She rinsed rat hearts with detergent until the cells washed away and all that remained was a skeleton of tissue translucent as wax paper—a ghost heart, as Taylor calls it. She injected the scaffold with fresh heart cells from newborn rats. Then she waited.

Personal information in the digital realm is always susceptible to malicious activity. Passwords can be stolen from a database, credit card numbers swiped at the point of sale; even the new American passports contain RFID chips which critics claim can be surreptitiously read. Now, even a pacemaker can be hacked from the outside.

Although doctors may someday heal weakened body parts by infusing them with stem cells that develop into specialized tissues, coaxing the body´s own cells to become self-repairing would be an even bigger biological coup. What if we could simply prompt damaged organs to repair themselves?

When it comes to matters of the heart, big is usually better. But big and floppy is another story. After a heart attack or other assault that weakens the heart's muscles, the organ begins to enlarge. The stress can kill so many cells that the heart begins to look like a "big floppy bag," says Dr. Hani Sabbah, the inventor of a mesh-like jacket that protects against the stretching that leads to heart failure. It's currently in clinical trials.