The cremaster, an obscure muscle that keeps testicles close to the male body when cold sets in, has had two moments of glory. The more recent was at New York's Guggenheim museum in 2003, when Matthew Barney presented his full cycle of Cremaster films and associated paraphernalia. There were few if any participants in that artfest who were aware of the cremaster's earlier starring role as a model tissue in the study of inflammation.
That use of the cremaster was initiated by Guido Majno, who at the time was at Harvard Medical School (Boston, MA). A coworker urged Majno to learn the new art of EM. But Majno knew that there was no EM apparatus in Boston, and the obvious alternative location, Rockefeller University, was a tough place to get into. “The only hope I had,” says Majno, “was the Romanian connection.”
Both Majno and...
