Science is crazy

Here are a few neat articles:

Bullet Proof Skin

Here’s a radical idea.  Spider-silk infused goat milk combined with human skin can apparently stop a bullet.  There are a lot of ethical implications here as far as genetic engineering goes, and it’s not like we’ll be seeing bullet proof babies anytime soon, but still it’s on the path science and technology is taking us down.  Who knows where we’ll be 100 years from now! 

http://www.geek.com/articles/geek-cetera/spider-silk-and-goat-milk-can-make-human-skin-bulletproof-20110815/

Immortal Jellyfish

Here is a jellyfish that when experiencing extreme stress (starving or injured for example) can come to the surface of the ocean and convert into a blob.  The mass of cells then undergo trandifferentiation and essentially a new jellyfish is created.  How this works is unknown, however it could have huge effects if figured out in areas such as cancer research, degenerative diseases, and aging.

http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/animals/stories/immortal-jellyfish-does-it-really-live-forever

BANANAS!!!

This article discusses the lack of genetic diversity in the bananas we eat and love.  Essentially, if a disease or fungus were to come around that these bananas were prone to we would experience a “banana apocalypse” and the world’s favorite fruit would exist no more.  This is actually occurring with much of our agricultural goods.  We want our corn to look and taste like other corn, and our potatoes to look and taste like other potatoes; one variety all the time.  I think we’re probably going to be ok no matter what happens to the banana industry, but it’s still something to think about! (Also, Chiquita has cool stickers)

http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2005-06/can-fruit-be-saved