The World's First Artificial Gut!

Scientists have constructed the world's first artificial gut:

Constructed from sophisticated plastics and metals able to withstand the corrosive acids and enzymes found in the human gut, the device may ultimately help in the development of super-nutrients, such as obesity-fighting foods that could fool the stomach into thinking it is full.

''There have been lots of jam-jar models of digestion before,'' said Dr. Martin Wickham of Norwich's Institute of Food Research, the artificial gut's chief designer, referring to the beakers of enzymes typically used to approximate the chemical reactions in the stomach.

Wickham's patented artificial gut is a two-part model that is slightly larger than a desktop computer. The top half consists of a funnel in which food, stomach acids and digestive enzymes are mixed. Once this hydration process is finished, the food gets ground down in a silver metal tube encased in a dark, transparent box.

Software sets the parameters of the artificial gut -- how long food remains in a particular part of the stomach, predicted hormone responses at various stages, and whether it is an infant or adult gut.

I love this kind of reverse-engineering. Scientists have to resort to all sorts of rust-resistant metals and poly-carbonate plastics in order to get the same acetic protection we get from some squishy flesh. God bless evolution.

But this faux-gut also reminded me of some avant-garde art I saw a few years ago. It was called a Cloaca machine, and it consisted of several glass beakers, some plastic tubes, a few enzymes, and a noisy pump. At the beginning of the day, the machine would be fed some food. A few hours later, it took a dump. I'm not quite sure where the art came in - perhaps the installation was really a sardonic commentary on the consumerish nature of modern art. Anyways, I was just impressed because the Cloaca shit smelled like real shit.