Noise #171: Healing hearts with silkworms and zebrafish

I wrote music that reacts to Australia's newest, most offbeat medical innovations.

In the early 2000s, I spent six months living in Melbourne, Australia and fell in love with the country for so many reasons. This recent article in The Age added a few more to the list.

Medical researches at Monash University are looking to the natural world for creative new solutions to pernicious old problems:

On their quest to better heal cuts, lesions, withered muscle and busted tissue, scientists have turned to a strange kind of alchemy – they’ve created high-tech new salves by blasting algae with plasma and boiling silk spun by caterpillars. They’re hoping that one day, we get so good at healing wounds that we will be able to repair tissue that doesn’t typically regenerate, including that of the heart and brain.

The article also talks about zebrafish, their remarkable ability to “regrow fins and revamp their hearts, retinas and spinal cords”—and how human therapies could be developed from their example.

I recorded Noise #171 thinking about medical treasures found in unlikely places—everything from penicillin to the promise of these newest explorations. There’s an offbeat and exploratory energy to the piece, in keeping with the vibe of the news story, and a sense of looking to the future.

I hope you enjoy listening to Noise #171:

Wishing you peace,

Michael

(Noise #171 by Michael Gallant. Copyright 2024 Gallant Music LLC. All Rights Reserved.)