Re: Harnessing the power of nature

On Thu, 9 Jan 2025 13:01:50 +0000, j.nobel.daggett@gmail.com (LDagget)
wrote:

On Thu, 9 Jan 2025 10:35:24 +0000, Martin Harran wrote:
>

https://www.thetimes.com/uk/healthcare/article/the-holy-grail-of-heart-health-a-valve-that-grows-inside-you-pjxvrq33l
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Avoid paywall: https://archive.is/aPuXP
>
>
I found this article in last weekend's Sunday Times fascinating. It's
about a breakthrough in creating a 'growing heart valve' i.e. a
replacement valve that grows with the body. A major issue with
children suffering congenital heart disease is that existing valves
have to be replaced every few years as their bodies grow. This
technique involves a temporary valve made of microscopic fibres which
acts as a scaffold that infuses with the body's cells. The scaffold
gradually dissolves leaving a self-grown living valve made of the
patient's own tissue.
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This bit particularly caught my attention:
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"To mimic nature, the fibres are of different widths and have specific
spaces between them which attract cells; this creates an environment
where they thrive. After settling into these spaces, cells grow and
trigger the development of the different cell types needed to make the
heart valve work.
>
A study of the device in sheep, published a year ago in the journal
Nature Communications Biology, revealed that within four weeks there
were more than 20 different types of cell - including nerve and fatty
tissue cells - functioning in the exact places they would be in a
natural heart valve."
>
A poster here seems to have trouble accepting how powerful and
versatile natural forces can be; this article seems to me just one
example of how powerful and versatile they actually can be.

>
Yes, cells lay down an extracellular matrix and display a
fascinating level of self-organization. Here's a challenge.
Express your last sentence without using the colloquial sense
of "force". The problem is, force in science is something that
comes with the units of mass * length / time^2. That notion of
"force" doesn't really map into your terminology of "natural
forces".  Terms like force and energy often get used in what
most of us recognize as pseudoscience. You know, where the force
of will of my spirit animal is amplified by my magic crystals
when I sit under a pyramid.
>
Words like __force__  and  __energy__ sound almost scientific.
I often cringe when (other) people use these colloquially. Anyway,
you have been challenged.

Sorry, my bad - in this instance, I meant natural *processes*.

I might argue about "forces" another day but not here :)