Experienced a bit of nastalogia this past weekend in eating cotton candy, aka “fairy floss” or “candy floss”.  Not only did I get to eat some of it, but I also, for the first time, got to operate the machine that makes it.  When you see how this thing works, you really have to ask yourself, what in the heck gave them idea for this??  Granted a lot of inventions come about purely by accident… you know, you really intend to solve one problem, but discover something entirely different instead and thus a new product/solution!  So did cotton candy come about this way or did someone really think, hey, let’s heat up a bunch of sugar, spin it around in a centrifugal device with slits in it, and I bet we can make a pretty tasty treat!!   … come on!  Where in the world did they come up with this idea???   I can’t believe this invention wasn’t an accident of some sort!

So I went out in search of an answer.  Haven’t found one yet, by the way.  So if anyone can help and point me in the right direction I would appreciate it.  I found who invented it and when it was first introduced, etc., but not how they came up with the actual idea for the invention…

But in the process of my research I also stumbled across an NPR news story about how two New York researchers are experimenting with cotton candy as a possible way to create artificial tissue for the human body.  yes you read that right!  can you believe it?  Cotton candy that might actually help save your life someday! 

Check out the full story here:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=100721500&ft=1&f=6851565

Basically this idea is still on the drawing board and not ready for testing yet, but the basic idea is to use cotton candy rather then nanofibers to help create the small tiny network of artificial blood vessels and coat it using a liquid polymer.  Eventually the candy disintigrates and you are left with one well developed network of blood vessels.  Pretty slick idea, eh?! 

So next time you visit your dentist office, bring in some cotton candy with you, sit in the chair and eat it in front of him or her and explain how cotton candy might not be good for your teeth but it might just be the cure for some certain other body parts in the future!