DocWagon, here we come.

These are technically cultured (cloned) replacement organs. We've previously been able to culture tissue segments successfully, but this is the first full organ mankind has whipped up in a test tube.

I'm sure we'll all here about this in a few years when they start growing gigantic "Wangs". At least in our e-mail....

But, that is very awesome.

That is 73|-| 4VV350|\/|3. Why didn't it work before? Because bladders are simple organs?

its basicly the size, and that a bladder is more then just a bag to hold your liquid waste. it have muscles that need to be in specific places and similar so that it can function properly...

still, compared to say a heart, a bladder is a very simple organ

While I doubt there's some clever geneticist with a secretly homegrown statuesque redhead tucked away, you'd think that replacement livers would be more commonplace. I mean, livers are supposed to be easy.

I heard a report on this from NPR the other night and according to them they figured out that they might be able to do it 7 years ago but only now had any success. Interesting since the bladder is the simplest of the inteernal organs.

I thought the dental filling was the simplest of organs...

So how long until we can do the Raelian brain transplant and never die? Or until we no longer need to have sex to reproduce? And how difficult would bioware be with this?

Teeth aren't "organs" really; they are extrusions whose function is solely on form.

A bladder is an active structure that responds to commands and serves a purpose. One problem with bladders are if they don't discharge sufficiently they leaving enough fluid behind to foster a septic environment so this is a significant achievement.

I figure we're another 10 years away from the first of the complex organ growths testing out successfully. It will probably be a pancreas as it isn't as particular about the structure as some other organs are and it would be a boon to a huge number of people with diabetes. AFAIK, kidneys require too much plumbing to be an early "clonal" product but they will probably be right after pancreaseseses. (I just couldn't stop....)

I won't be surprised if the first "heart" looks nothing like the real thing and is really two separate pump bladders operating semi-independantly at lower than normal blood pressures. The heart is a pretty complex thing, so complex that even after millions of years of evolution it still doesn't always get put together right. We will probably need a few decades at least to get the process down.

"Bioware," in the sense of replacement organs that function significantly better than completely healthy organs, are at least 50 years away as I expect there to be significant consquences that affect the body as a whole.

For what it's worth, I am neither a doctor nor a biomedical researcher.

I should say, will we no longer need to go through the stress (and stretching) generally required to properly produce offspring? Can we just send our DNA samples off to the baby factory and expect a FedEx delivery in approximately ten months, assuming all our checks clear? Would it come with a return policy?

Can I place an order for 1 space heart and 1 spare brain.

Put me on the list for the redhead....

You can take mine, only slightly used.

Heh. Well done.

(The one-liner, not the liver or the redhead. Although I suppose a nice Chianti would help either of them go down.)

as far as the next organ to be produced, I kind of doubt it will be the pancreas as the pancreas is responsible for producing large volumes of enxymes and even some hormones (like insulin).
Regrowing nerves in eyes is already at the cutting edge. Nerves regrow amazingly well, but the idea of transplanting them isn;t advanced yet.

With teeth?

Vagina dentata?

It's not scary if the words bring the song to mind.

There's a song about... well... that? Teeth, down there?

"Vagina dentata, what a wonderful phrase"? That one?

I'm proud to say I have never heard that one...

anyone got an mp3 link?

That's the one! And it's not in mp3 format, it's in webcomic format...