Let’s face it: vampires rock! Turn on any American Television and you’re sure to be inundated by the Twilights, Underworlds, and True Bloods of the world. Ever since Dracula was written by Bram Stoker in 1897, our culture has been fascinated by creatures of the night drinking the blood of unsuspecting maidens. How could vampires serve as an inspiration for science? JoVE provides the answer!
Back in March, Dr. Stephen Banse published an article with JoVE, titled “Vampiric Isolation of Extracellular Fluid from Caenorhabditis elegans.” Spooky right? Banse took the novel concept of Vampirism, or draining the blood from a person, and applied it to develop a technique called Vampiric Isolation of Extracellular Fluid to drain blood from C. elegans.
The lesson to take away is the use of one of our culture’s myths as inspiration for an innovative technological technique. Strictly the title of Banse’s article sparks the reader’s imagination by putting all of our knowledge of vampires in the forefront of our mind. The visualization of the procedure then shows a needle doing the iconic vampire action, draining the extracellular fluid from one organism and then injecting it in another.
Who knows what other aspects of our cultural mythos could provide inspiration for a new discovery. Could someone inspired by zombies develop a new method for drug administration, or could Frankenstein’s monster inspire a new technique for flesh grafts? Who knows- but in the meantime check out the full article here. Don’t have full access to JoVE?
Blog