When Lee Spievack sliced off the end of his finger a few years ago, his brother sent him some powder to sprinkle on it. In four weeks, his fingertip had grown back! Dr. Steven Badylak explains:

That powder is a substance made from pig bladders called extracellular matrix. It is a mix of protein and connective tissue surgeons often use to repair tendons and it holds some of the secrets behind the emerging new science of regenerative medicine.

"It tells the body, start that process of tissue regrowth," said Badylak.

Badlayk is one of the many scientists who now believe every tissue in the body has cells which are capable of regeneration. All scientists have to do is find enough of those cells and "direct" them to grow.

"Somehow the matrix summons the cells and tell them what to do," Badylak explained. "It helps instruct them in terms of where they need to go, how they need to differentiate - should I become a blood vessel, a nerve, a muscle cell or whatever."

Scientists are studying the matrix to grow organs for transplant and to repair war wounds. Link -via Digg

Previously at Neatorama: Regrowing Human Limbs

You can’t assume that the ice is safe to park on just because everyone else is doing it. See more pictures at English Russia. Link -via Digg

The winners of the 2007 YouTube Video Awards were announced yesterday. The best videos were named in various categories, many of which have been featured on Neatorama over the past year. The awards were based on votes from YouTube users. http://www.youtube.com/ytawards07winners

Friday, March 21st is Good Friday for Christians, but it’s also a sacred date for many other religions. People are celebrating Good Friday, Purim, Narouz, Eid Milad an Nabi, Small Holi, and Magha Puja. That doesn’t happen often.

Ed Reingold and Nachum Dershowitz, co-authors of the books Calendrical Calculations and Calendrical Tabulations, determined how often in the period between 1600 and 2400 A.D. Good Friday, Purim, Narouz and the Eid would occur in the same week. The answer is nine times in 800 years. Then they tackled the odds that they would converge on a two-day period. And the total is ... only once: tomorrow. And that's not even counting Magha Puja and Small Holi.

TIME has an explantion of these holidays and how they are set in the calendar. Link -via Metafilter

(image credit: Sèbastien Dèsarmaux/Godong/Corbis)

Scientists who just returned from a survey of the Ross Sea near Antarctica have found giant versions of sea creatures, such as jellyfish with 12-foot tentacles and a starfish measuring 2 feet wide! Some of the 30,000 specimens collected could be entirely new species.

A 2,000-mile journey through the Ross Sea that ended Thursday has also potentially turned up several new species, including as many as eight new mollusks.

It's "exciting when you come across a new species," said Chris Jones, a fisheries scientist at the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. "All the fish people go nuts about that — but you have to take it with a grain of salt."

The finds must still be reviewed by experts to determine if they are in fact new, said Stu Hanchet, a fisheries scientist at New Zealand's National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5ig8x2h8-QXCJlC9lHTVglsatgp-AD8VHPN080 -via Reddit

(image credit: AP/NZ IPY-CAML, John Mitchell)

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A live rabbit gets a rubdown from a lookalike mechanical bunny. Watch for the ear action! -via Arbroath

The 21 Steps by Charles Cumming is a spy thriller told with Google Maps. The protagonist, of course, does a lot of traveling. Link -via Metafilter

The Astronomy Picture of the Day is a gorgeous sunset in honor of the Vernal Equinox.

To celebrate the equinox, consider this colorful view of the setting Sun. Recorded last June from the International Space Station, the Sun's limb still peeks above the distant horizon as seen from Earth orbit. Clouds appear in silhouette as the sunlight is reddened by dust in the dense lower atmosphere. Molecules in the more tenuous upper atmosphere are preferentially scattering blue light.

Go to Astronomy Picture of the Day to see it full-size. Link -via Digg

(image credit: Expedition 15 Crew, NASA)

Jeff Atwood of Coding Horror has a helpful and informative article about rechargeable batteries. The beauty of it is the unabashed joy he takes in his new charger.

...I ended up tossing my generic "rapid" chargers in favor of the majestic, glorious, and surprisingly inexpensive La Crosse Technology BC-900 AlphaPower battery charger.

Seriously, just look at this thing. It's a geek's dream.

Link -via Metafilter

John Clarke and Bryan Dawe of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation explain the subprime mortgage meltdown in a manner even I can understand.

People who don’t know what they’re doing will buy anything, Bryan.

http://www.abc.net.au/australiawide/stories/2008/200803/s2190009.htm -via Boing Boing

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Ghostriding a car is old hat, but how about a Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle? These marines in Iraq are up to the task. Warning- brief mooning at the end. -via Gorilla Mask

Forbes’ list of America's Cleanest Cities is out, and Miami ranks at #1. You can only find out all top ten by watching a slideshow, so I’m listing them for you:

1. Miami, Florida
2. Seattle, Washington
3. Jacksonville, Florida
4. Orlando, Florida
5. Portland, Oregon
6. San Francisco, California
7. Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
8. Tampa-St. Petersburg, Florida
9. Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota
10. San Jose-Sunnyvale, California

Florida cities are helped by prevailing winds that blow away smog. Link -via Geek Like Me

Fred Rogers, star of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, would have been 80 years old today. In honor of his birthday, Mr McFeely asks you to wear your favorite sweater.

"We’re asking everyone everywhere — from Pittsburgh to Paris — to wear their favorite sweater on that day," he asks in his best speedy delivery voice. "It doesn’t have to have a zipper down the front like the one Mister Rogers wore on the program, it just has to be special to you."

Rogers’ favorite sweater is now on display at the Smithsonian Institutions’ Museum of American History. Wear A Sweater Day is part of "Won’t You Be My Neighbor?" Days (March 15-20) in Pittsburgh. Link -via Metafilter

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The tale of a confused bird, an obedient dog, and a curious cat. -via Arbroath

“The most complicated thing that humans have ever built” describes the Large Hadron Collider ready to begin operations next month. Built underground, it runs 17 miles across the borders of two countries (Switzerland and France). The world’s largest particle accelerator will smash protons together to create conditions similar to the “Big Bang” and maybe warp the space-time continuum. Statistics on the size and possibilities of the collider’s work, as well as pictures to give you an idea of its size, can be found at Dark Roasted Blend. Link

(image credit: Michael Hoch, CERN)