wow: babies brains and spleens

So my good friends, Rob and Krista, have some good friends who have a daughter who, while be checked over for some seemingly mundane problems, found out their daughter had a brain tumor. Carly is doing much better, which you can read about at their blog by clicking this paragraph. What is so amazing is that little Carly has continued to grow through this whole ordeal. She even has her teeth coming in now. They mentioned she is sleeping a lot these days, which is good, because that is when brains develop. Bodies are amazing.

Along the lines of amazing body notes, turns out your spleen is REALLY important.

"Scientists have discovered that the spleen, long consigned to the B-list of abdominal organs and known as much for its metaphoric as its physiological value, plays a more important role in the body’s defense system than anyone suspected. Reporting in the current issue of the journal Science, researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School describe studies showing that the spleen is a reservoir for huge numbers of immune cells called monocytes, and that in the event of a serious trauma to the body like a heart attack, gashing wound or microbial invasion, the spleen will disgorge those monocyte multitudes into the bloodstream to tackle the crisis."

I really can't believe the New York Times let this last line through: "Hail to the chief, hail to the queen and hail to the monocytes residing in my spleen." (To read the whole story click these paragraphs.)