The gooey, sweet stuff that gets stuck all over your fingers at carnivals might be put to better use. Scientists from New York are taking the sticky material and investigating its application as replacement tissue. It's possible that researchers could use it to create blood vessel networks within bone, skin, muscle, or fat that's grown in labs. To make these artificial blood vessels, a thick liquid chemical is poured over cotton candy and left to solidify. Then it is placed in warm water, which dissolves the candy, and you're left with very small channels that the researchers line with cells. They're using cotton candy, because it's inexpensive, but a different material might be required as the scientists move forward. Their work has been published online by the journal Soft Matter. —Maria Fontanazza