Newborn Mice’s Hearts Can Heal Themselves
Taken from: The NY Times, March 1, 2011
By SINDYA N. BHANOO


An adult zebra fish can regenerate a damaged heart with no scar formation. This remarkable phenomenon has been seen in other fish and amphibians as well, but never before in a mammal. Now researchers from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center report in the current issue of Science that the mammalian newborn heart can fully heal itself.

Dr. Hesham Sadek, a cardiologist at the medical center, and his colleagues worked with mice and found that if a portion of the heart was removed within the first week of life, the heart grew back completely. The researchers removed about 15 percent of the lowest portion of the heart, known as the apex, in laboratory mice. Within three weeks, the lost tissue regenerated itself and the hearts were healed.

“But by seven days this remarkable regenerative is lost and instead of regrowing that tissue back, there is heart failure,” said Dr. Sadek said. “In humans, it may be a few months after birth that this is lost.” The newborn’s uninjured beating heart cells, known as cardiomyocytes, may be the source of new cells. Or stem cells may be contributing to the process, according to the report.

The study offers hope that doctors will one day be able to cure heart disease. If newborn children are also able to regenerate their hearts, there may be a way to restart this ability in adults. “We’re looking at a few genes that could regulate this process, and then we can look for drugs that activate the genes,” Dr. Sadek said. “Maybe we can remind the heart how to do this.”

Read more here.

HBD013

Burial will be releasing a new solo single on Hyperdub March 28. The three tracks are ‘Street Halo’, ‘NYC’ and ‘Stolen Dog’. It's been four years since a solo release by Burial- I don't know quite what to expect, but I hope to see a progression of sorts. I have a deep love for Burial, but with four years to sit on his old material, releasing tracks that are merely "more of the same" will be a bit of a let down.

*Update* Below are two of the tracks:

Burial - Stolen Dog by weallwantsome1

Burial - Street Halo by weallwantsome1

I dig: Sam Winston

Given the content of this blog, you may wonder if my interests span outside of the music realm. Rarely, but yes...I’m not joking, just joking, I am joking, just joking, I’m not joking.

So, Sam Winston is a brilliant London artist who works with words, language, typography, literature and semantics in artistic form. His genius borders on insanity in terms of the painstaking detail and numeracy in his work. His projects epitomize the non-dichotomous aspects of art, math, science and language. The ideas behind Orphan and Darwin are some of the most impressive I've seen in a while.

Collaboration Gratification

A Burial, Thom Yorke, Four Tet collaboration? This doesn't surprise me the slightest (hell, it wouldn't surprise me if Johnny Greenwood himself was Burial, for that matter). I think the only thing more I could ask for is for LUKID and FlyLo to also join the party. Listen to the two tracks  1) Mirror and  2) Ego below. Limited physical release is March 21 (good luck getting your hands on a copy).

I'm just curious as to how this type of event happens: does Thom call up Kieran Hebden to see if him and Burial want to come over and play for an afternoon? To be quite frank, I'm more excited about the collaboration itself; the two tracks aren't blowing my mind. I feel as though Thom's stock has been down lately. Just sayin'...

Stephen Farris

...he reminds me of FlyLo but more 80's cosmic rock rather than cosmic space opera hip-hop. Bottom line: the resulting music is swag. Better yet, Stephen Farris, a 20 year old who hails from Houston, Texas, will be releasing a new album, Cosmic Sound II. Check out the rest of his work here- and take note that I dig every single one of his tracks; this is an LP artist for sure.

   Indigo by Stephen Farris

   Orange Mellow by Stephen Farris

Upcoming Album Releases 2011

A non-comprehensive list of upcoming new releases that I'm looking forward to (and that you should be too!):

Aphex Twin- ???- March 12, Warp?
Falty DL- You Stand Uncertain, March 14, Planet Mu
FABRICLIVE 56: Ramadanman/Pearson Sound - March 21, Fabric
Moon Duo- Mazes- March 29, Sacred Bones
Bibio- Mind Bokeh- March 29, Warp
Prefuse 73- The Only She Chapters- April 25, Warp
Explosions in the Sky- Take Care, Take Care, Take Care- April 26, Temporary Residence Ltd.
Tyler the Creator- Goblin- April, XL
White Denim- D- May 24, Downtown
Shabazz Palaces- Black Up- May 31, Sub Pop
My Morning Jacket- Circuital, TBA, ATO

Of course, there are the ubiquitous rumours flying around as well: Burial, Portishead (Album 4), etc. So far, 2011 has been a good year for sounds, and I have a feeling it's only going to get better.

"They're like Nicki Minaj, with dicks, and there's nine of them."

Following Tyler the Creator's decision to sign with XL, MellowHype has signed with Fat Possum (home to Junior Kimbrough, The Smith Westerns, and The Black Keys, among others).

This video of them making light of their "success" getting signed is priceless. I especially love the line at 1:34.