Wednesday, July 26, 2006

Eel ice cream

Aspirin originally came from the bark of the willow tree. It tasted foul but was good at relieving pain, so people ate it anyway.

Modern aspirin is made in a factory out of chemicals. It has never even seen a willow tree.

Does modern aspirin lose something because it began its life in a test tube and not as part of a living, breathing organism? The is no, of course, but people feel that things that came from living things may carry over some essential "life essence" that makes that version of it more special. There are shades of animism to this sentiment, and I feel it too.

At any rate, what to make of ice cream that contains a protein first found in the blood of eel-like fish that live in the Arctic Ocean?

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