Scaffolds
a fun word it is
Credit Is Due
Tonight I am inspired by a very focused Newsletter that tackles the challenges of feeding the world head-on. That Newsletter is “Creative Destruction” by Carter Williams. His writing is infrequent but each time I see a post I get excited as I am going to learn something!
This Started With Breakfast…
I recently had a post about breakfast which rapidly descended into the wonder of how we spend our time. My breakfast time depends on a ridiculous assortment of technology. Oftentimes, the tools of a given trade become the basis of how we get better at something. It may seem inconsequential but something as basic as scaffolding is important to the better operation of all sorts of jobs.
I think the only time you might see a scaffold is when you enter a tool rental place. I have a sneaking suspicion that amongst my readers, only a favored cousin from Groveland, New York, an idyllic spot in the Finger Lakes successfully may have convinced his wife of the merits of owning their own scaffold.
So why all this chatter about scaffolds? Today I want to talk about two newish instances of the use of the word scaffold I have read about recently. I think these new-fangled references might be interesting to you. Time will tell.
Modern Medicine
Somewhere in the mid-2000s, my neighborhood suffered a terrible tragedy. A wonderful man who was the father of one of my son’s best friends was diagnosed with esophageal cancer. He was young and vibrant. He seemed invincible, healthy, and likely to be around for a long time. It was not to be as this neighbor of ours succumbed to the disease.
A number of years after our friend passed away some advanced research began making breakthroughs in the making of an artificial trachea or esophagus. Wow, do we live in amazing times! I did not quite remember the details so I needed to do a bit of googling. I found this article about breakthrough work at Ohio State University in 2011.
The technology has evolved through fits and starts but basically, a potential patient (1) has some of their stem cells extracted, (2) procedures are performed to direct those generic stem cells to be focused on a particular task and finally (3) a structural scaffold is provided in the shape of the trachea and the stem cells do the rest. It sounds a lot easier than it is. This is another example of the greatest time to be alive in my estimation.
The inspiration for how things work is scattered in nature. This is not surprising since both plants and animals use the very same engine of DNA. They both grab amino acids and string them together in recipes recorded in their DNA and the results are the proteins they need to grow and flourish. While life is certainly wondrous, complex, and diverse, the repeating patterns are almost mundane! Amino acids are surprisingly basic in their structure. If you are interested, I had a post about this and it’s provided below.
The breakthroughs in “making” body parts start with stem cells. Thereafter, a structure of what you want it to follow as a shape is provided and nature does the rest! The scientists call the structure they want the stem cells to follow the scaffold. While the analogy might seem silly, I think of having a trellis and letting the ivy just climb!
Let’s Make Some Sushi!
Now the latest example of a scaffold which is WAY MORE INTERESTING to me is about making good sushi! A while back I posted about plant-based burgers that “bleed”. The story might be a little weird to some. Most of the “innovations” in food on the horizon are all about reducing the footprint in the production of food. Just like electric cars, new technology first comes into the high-end market. If you are going to try and make salmon without a regular supply of fish, that sounds like a crazy parlor trick.
My path to today’s title and topic began with a previous post called “Cool Living Stuff”. Near the tail end of that post I “jumped the shark” and decided to talk about animals 3.0. I loved writing that post as we started with animals, including the ones that have come and gone. Animals 2.0 have emerged in our lifetimes as we are now knocking on the door to creating and manipulating life with CRISPR technologies. So not to belabor the point but since the last mass extinction, there have been some pretty amazing animals but none more amazing than us.
We have begun to bend technology, multiply our efforts and peer into the very secrets of life. After we settled down and started farming we inevitably changed the ecosystem. Even a plant-based guy like me knows how hard it is to resist a nice steak or a lamb chop. I also know the number of resources needed to make that a reality is unsustainable. Why do I, a big believer in technology think that? I can certainly “afford” lamb chops, so cost is not the issue in a narrow, selfish sense. I have previously talked about how few of us live a first-world lifestyle. That means disposable cups, clamshell lunches, tomahawk steaks, and what-not.
This “lifestyle” is pernicious because if we are indeed the highest order creation, why is it that the “lifestyle” applies to PERHAPS 15% of our fellow homo sapiens while the 85% suffer in misery and squalor. It is very difficult me for to square that with my spiritual beliefs. As I pointed out in “The Six Percent Solution”, only 11-12% of the inhabitants of the PLANET happen to be Caucasian and likely in the first world.
I am sure that salmon have been fished for as long as people realized how tasty they are! A wondrous fish of great texture and flavor. I am partial to the seasonal availability of copper river salmon and its characteristic blood-red color. Yummy. The innovations in making a protein are now the next step in sci-fi. While plant-based protein substitutes have followed a methodical process, the next approach is eliminating the animal altogether!
Oh Give Me A Home…
The destruction of species seems inevitable with humans. Our mastery of technology, belief propositions like “dominion over the creatures of the earth”, and inherent selfishness stack the deck for the species of the world. It even applies to our FELLOW humans.
Here is a photo I found from the 1870s that captures things succinctly in my eyes:
Since large-scale fishing began in the last three centuries, it is estimated that anywhere from 65% to 90% of the large fish have been removed. The word decimate is rooted in the Roman practice to kill every tenth prisoner. Our dominion over the oceans has gone well past decimation. With more nations striving to become first-world, it is not shocking to observe how large their fishing fleets are. Ocean life cannot win in a battle with the apex predator. This is mostly because this is “free-protein” not unlike the complete destruction of the bison for different reasons.
Sushi Time
Salmon and scaffolds give me hope! When wild salmon became popular, they soon became threatened. The next step is farm-raised salmon. That MAY DELAY the extinction of the wild-caught but I doubt it. I remember a telling story about the emergence of fish farming. One of the EARLY PROBLEMS was the accumulation of pollutants in the farmed fish. Farmed fish were being fed smaller species and unfortunately, the centuries of pollution in the Northern Hemisphere made the small fish there MUCH MORE POLLUTION CONCENTRATED than Southern Hemisphere fish. The “solution” was to catch the small fish in the Southern Hemisphere and bring them up to feed our farmed fish like salmon.
Extracting a cell line from a wonderful example of salmon and then trying to “make salmon” without the fish in the first place is what today is all about. While the work is in its infancy, progress is rapid. Here is a company if you are interested in learning more. The site describes the role of the scaffold better than I can. As one of my favorite posters is likely to say, this is bonkers. Like new ventures of all kinds, there are technical challenges and the first salmon nigiri is quite expensive. It seems inconceivable that such an approach will not evolve. It may very well be that in my lifetime, Star Trek and the Jetsons are just over the horizon.
The Poll & Music
I love the polls as they help keep things light. I’ve added a standard last option of “SOMETHING ELSE :)” when my choices leave something to be desired. For the eagle-eyes, I actually added it in my last post about the Fair titled “Conscience”. Enjoy!
In nearly every aspect of our lives, impossible scientific advances are on the brink of transforming our lives. Time for a Thomas Dolby song.
What’s Next
My next post is titled “Beantown”. We are going to talk about the magical fruits.
When I first arrived at RHS, I had to do tech for the musical Guys and Dolls. The entire set was scaffolding. I was clueless!
Thanks Mark