from last tuesday’s Science Times section of the NY Times:

“Dr. Bianchi…stumbled into the field [stem cell research] when she was trying to find a new method of prenatal diagnosis. She knew that a few fetal cells enter a woman’s blood during pregnancy…But then she discovered that the fetal cells do not disappear when a pregnancy ends. Instead, they remain in a woman’s body for decades, perhaps indefinitely. And if a woman’s tissues or organs are injured, fetal cells from her baby migrate there, divide and turn into the needed cell type, be it thyroid or liver, intestine or gallbladder, cervix or spleen.”

okay, i don’t normally get all excited about mothery sorts of things (my ovaries have apparently procrastinated the biological tick-tick-tick until later in life), but how amazing is that? a woman’s offspring physically become a permanent part of her own body, and the act of giving life to a child could in turn prolong or protect her life from illness or injury years later.

science is cool. nature even more amazing.