Wednesday, April 05, 2006

I thought we could plant the spleens over there, next to the pancreas bush and behind the shrubbery




From the BBC:

US scientists have successfully implanted bladders grown in the laboratory from patients' own cells into people with bladder disease.

The researchers, from North Carolina's Wake Forest University, have carried out seven transplants, and in some the organ is working well years later.

The achievement, details of which have been published online by The Lancet, is being described as a "milestone".

The team is now working to grow organs including hearts using the technique.


I don’t think mine needs replacing yet, but I reckon a second one would be really useful for getting through long movies without missing a key plot twist.

6 Comments:

Blogger Unknown said...

Brit,
Were you trying to make a sexual entendre with "behind the shrubbery" or am I just a dirty old man?

April 05, 2006 7:22 AM  
Blogger Brit said...

The latter, I'm afraid.

April 05, 2006 7:26 AM  
Blogger Oroborous said...

This kind of thing is why there was a prediction of 200 - 1000 year lifespans in the Kurzweil post - even aside from the possibility of uploading our personalities and memories into digital storage.

I don't know how long the human brain could continue to function, even with optimal conditions, but it seems logical to think that if we replaced all of our internal organs every thirty years or so, so that we were always in the flush of youth physiologically, our lives would be dramatically extended, and the quality of life should remain high.

Not that the average human would do much with an extra 300 years, except play more video games.

April 05, 2006 8:35 PM  
Blogger Brit said...

Imagine how curmudgeonly Peter would be at age 300.

April 07, 2006 5:56 AM  
Blogger Brit said...

Oh Peter. You make me feel like spring has sprung.

April 08, 2006 3:44 AM  
Blogger Harry Eagar said...

Lest it be averred that I never have anything good to say about religion, allow me to point out that the Bowman Gray School of Medicine is part of a Southern Baptist school.

It is mildly ironic that the first organ these Baptists are planning to reproduce is one of interest to alcoholics.

April 09, 2006 12:53 PM  

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