For the most part, hospitals are disappointingly free of multicolored fluorescent lighting. If John Frangioni from Beth Israel Deaconess has his way, that may not be the case for much longer. Frangioni has developed a system in which near-infrared light makes microscopic particles glow inside a patient, with the results viewed on a monitor inside the operating room. Prior to surgery, a particular color of glowing molecule can be targeted to each different type of tissue, causing the patient to light up like in Trauma Center for the Wii (pictured left). This allows surgeons to ensure they have completely removed a tumor, and to keep from accidentally cutting blood vessels. Bostonist couldn't confirm rumors that the system is being adapted for a chain of hospital-themed nightclubs. Frangioni presented his results at the annual meeting of the American Chemical Society earlier this week; the article describing his research is in Technology Review.

Hopeless romantics looking to the stars for support were horrified to discover last year that even our own galaxy couldn't keep its smaller companion, the Large Magellanic Cloud (pictured below right), close enough for comfort. The cloud appeared to be moving too quickly through space to stay (gravitationally) attracted to our own Milky Way. (That would have been a breakup note worth reading!) However, Genevieve Shattow and Abraham Loeb of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics say in New Scientist that speculation of the couple's demise was premature. It turns out our galaxy has quite a bit more to love—its mass is about 50% higher than previously thought. The additional heft increases the Milky Way's gravitational pull enough to keep the cloud right by its side. The study was published in the galactic version of US Weekly, the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

More science surprises after the jump! Post contributed by Matt Feltz.

In a "Beaker Hill" tradition dating back to last week, we close with more stem cell news. This time it comes from way out in Worcester, the headquarters of Advanced Cell Technologies. New Scientist reports that the company has created lab-grown red blood cells from embryonic stem cells. Combined with the technique discussed in last week's column, it may one day be possible to use a few skin cells from type O-negative donors to avoid the shortages that often occur at blood banks. (O-negative blood is able to be used in transfusions for people of any blood type.) In tests, the lab-created cells have been shown to carry oxygen just as well as those in donated blood. The research was (fittingly) published in the journal Blood.