Sci-fi writers have been introducing concepts of harvesting and or creating human organs either artificially and or via cloning technologies, in movies like Frankenstein or the Stepford Wives, (cloning perfect wives in suburbia), Gattaca (a futuristic look at genetic engineering) or The Fifth Element (where scientists recreate the whole body of a very beautiful young woman from just the remains of a hand).
Just like the communicator in Star Trek, (now our mobile phone), genetic scientists are on the brink of making real the manufacture of artificial human organs and replaceable body parts and limbs.
The quest for achieving this feat has developed from years of stem cell research and cloning and the recent invention of a rubberized scaffolding material on which organs and or body parts can be grown.
In the video documentary below Neil Tyson narrates a fascinating look at advances in artificial organ generation and fabrication based on harvesting each persons own cells, from building a human ear inside a mouse, to fully working heart and lungs grown in jars.
This absolutely amazing technology looks likely to be able in the very near future replace amputees body parts, hearts, lungs, ears maybe even eyes!
Who knows perhaps sometime in the future people suffering coma may one day reawaken with a newly implanted brain ?
