AlexG55

I work in a lab where people work on islet cell transplantation, so I'm not an expert myself but I have heard a lot about it from colleagues giving talks on their work.

Essentially, whole pancreas transplants are AIUI very rare (if they're even done at all) because the surgery is so risky. Instead, the more common thing is to take just the islet cells from the donor (the cells that die in Type 1 diabetes) and implant them in the patient. Even this has its problems, though- it's a transplant, so you need immunosuppressive treatment for the rest of your life. Plus, relatively few of the cells actually survive so they have to implant islet cells from several donors to get enough to bring glucose levels under control.

People are currently working on ways to implant donor islet cells in a way that improves their survival rate so you don't need as many, and possibly even protects them from the immune system.

Regional airport in the UK often means an airport that doesn't have long-haul flights, but where people who live locally can fly to places like Spain without having to travel to a larger airport. Think somewhere like Bristol.

There are domestic flights in the UK- their competition is trains not driving. British people are much less likely to drive very long distances than Americans- fuel is expensive, cars are smaller, and long interrupted highway routes are rare. Someone travelling from London to Edinburgh would either take the train or fly, they'd be unlikely to drive.

The UK does have the world's shortest scheduled flight (though it's in Scotland not England). Flight time is 2 minutes. It's between 2 islands in the far north, and is one leg of a slightly longer route.

Recently there was a popular chart going round showing that Confederate monuments tended to be put up at specific points in history corresponding, for instance, to the passage of Jim Crow laws and to the desegregation of schools.

The thing is, these dates also correspond to things like large numbers of veterans dying off, and the centenary of the war.

Does the timescale of when Union monuments were put up match this? Sorry if this is a bit out of your area.