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[10ebbor10]

Although, if I lose a leg, I could totally get an awesome prosthetic leg and be on my way to becoming a cyborg or something.  Why don't we have those yet?  Isn't this 2014?  Why couldn't someone have engineered a body full of artificial organs encasing the brain and some nerves already?

Because all doctors suck and have this outdated thing called "Ethics".

What's unethical about it?

Wait, no. I thought he was talking about vat-grown organs, not mechanical ones. Vat-grown ones need, AFAIK, stem cells, which come from proto poop-machines and noise-makers pre-natal infants. The only problem I can see with mechanical ones is that it might be difficult to get volunteers for clinical trials.

As long as the cells are harvested before the fetus develops a nervous system I don't have a problem with it. Before that it's just a clump of cells. It may be human, but it's not a person that can think or feel. Besides, they are working on several ways to get the cells without using fetal stem cells.

Mechanical organs-wise: behold - a man with a mechanical heart. Really, the I imagine most difficult part is getting the brain out and still being able to keep it alive/ forming connections with nerves.

Uh. Heart isn't normally controlled by the brain. It's a special snowflake in that the basic wiring to let it operate continuously is still there. That's why you can have a braindead person whose heart is still working, and the other organs will as well as long as the lungs are artificially ventilated.

Actually most stem cells aren't gathered from infants. After all, it's best if the stem cells you get have your DNA. Prevents your body from going berzerk on them. Hence, most stem cells are gathered from bone marrow, adipose tissue(fat), and your blood. Those are multipotent (restricted in what they can become) stem cells though, not pluripotent stem cells.

The pluripotent (Basically, evolves into every possible cell type) stem cells can be harvested from early embryo's (blastocyst to be specific.) Considering those consist out of 150-200 cells total, they don't have anything resembling any sort of specialized cell.  We're also working on ways to create these from scratch.

[Lord Shonus]

Working on?

Found

If this can be used for humans, and pans out a tenth as well as they hope, this will be the most important medical development in the history of mankind. The potential makes penicillin look like a Band-Aid.

[10ebbor10]

There are many things that works for animals, and not for humans. Anyway, as long as it's only working on mouse, we're still working on it.

Besides, stem cells aren't that useful. In fact, multipotent cells are more useful than pluripotent cells. Multipotent cells will repair damage if they're injected in their corresponding structures. If you inject pluripotent cells, you only get a tumor, because they will differentiate into every cell type in their database, including those that aren't needed. We still need to do significant work on working with pluripotent cells.

Additionally, we had success with mice before. Mice with cloned organs lived, but had a short life expectancy.

[Eotyrannus]

I decided to vacate my table in chemistry today. For some reason, some of the other kids came over and started talking about their pictures on their phones (can't remember why they started). Two got their phones out. One of them was a girl who had a ton of pictures of shirtless girls, and the other was a boy who (for some reason) had a picture of dildoes on his phone.

Wut.

In other shenanigans with various other kids, I came across two boys hiding behind a locker today. One of them was apparently selling something to the other. I'd presume it's cigarettes, due to one of them being a known smoker to me, as he threw his cigarettes and 'bachies' out of the window when the teacher had a mistake on their timetable and didn't show up.

And in another form time, two boys started licking each other for some reason. I didn't ask.

[GiglameshDespair]

Uh. Heart isn't normally controlled by the brain. It's a special snowflake in that the basic wiring to let it operate continuously is still there. That's why you can have a braindead person whose heart is still working, and the other organs will as well as long as the lungs are artificially ventilated.

Oh, I know. I was just putting it there as part of the "mechanical organs" thing about the synthetic body and it's supposed unethicality.

[BlackFlyme]

There is so much snow right now it is almost unbelievable.

It's almost white-out conditions outside; you can barely see what's ahead of you. And the sidewalks weren't plowed. It was deeper than my boot was tall. Unfortunately about half-way home the sidewalk stops, and I half to either walk through a ditch or on the road. The road is too dangerous, and the ditch literally had snow up to my ass in height.

[scrdest]

There are many things that works for animals, and not for humans. Anyway, as long as it's only working on mouse, we're still working on it.

Besides, stem cells aren't that useful. In fact, multipotent cells are more useful than pluripotent cells. Multipotent cells will repair damage if they're injected in their corresponding structures. If you inject pluripotent cells, you only get a tumor, because they will differentiate into every cell type in their database, including those that aren't needed. We still need to do significant work on working with pluripotent cells.

Additionally, we had success with mice before. Mice with cloned organs lived, but had a short life expectancy.

You don't inject pluripotent stem cells into people. Saying that pluripotent cells are less useful than multipotent cells is like saying a fork is less useful than a spoon because you can't eat soup with a fork.

What you do with pluripotent cells is you cultivate them in vitro, and if you modify the, uh, ground? (sorry, linguistic brainderp) they lie on and provide a scaffold to keep things in the proper shape, you get a full organ.



My WTF: I just found out that Schweppes Ginger Ale, my soda of choice, has less sugar than a juice. I've been hesitating between picking it and a juice, because I'm not terribly fond of drinking mineral water, at least in winter, and as I looked to check how much sugar the allegedly unsweetened OJ had, it turned out it was 1 g/100 cm3 more.

[LeoLeonardoIII]

Yeah all juices are basically all sugar. And you don't get the fiber that you would hope to get from the actual fruit. You could mix a NSA fruit juice with soda water though, which can be good. You can start juice-heavy and begin weaning yourself back until it's mostly soda water.

[Octobomb]

Yeah all juices are basically all sugar. And you don't get the fiber that you would hope to get from the actual fruit. You could mix a NSA fruit juice with soda water though, which can be good. You can start juice-heavy and begin weaning yourself back until it's mostly soda water.

I didn't know the fruit juice was spying on us too! Fruit juice! I trusted you!

[10ebbor10]

There are many things that works for animals, and not for humans. Anyway, as long as it's only working on mouse, we're still working on it.

Besides, stem cells aren't that useful. In fact, multipotent cells are more useful than pluripotent cells. Multipotent cells will repair damage if they're injected in their corresponding structures. If you inject pluripotent cells, you only get a tumor, because they will differentiate into every cell type in their database, including those that aren't needed. We still need to do significant work on working with pluripotent cells.

Additionally, we had success with mice before. Mice with cloned organs lived, but had a short life expectancy.

You don't inject pluripotent stem cells into people. Saying that pluripotent cells are less useful than multipotent cells is like saying a fork is less useful than a spoon because you can't eat soup with a fork.

What you do with pluripotent cells is you cultivate them in vitro, and if you modify the, uh, ground? (sorry, linguistic brainderp) they lie on and provide a scaffold to keep things in the proper shape, you get a full organ.

Yup, we tried the Scaffolding thingy. It works (mainly because it relies on turning pluripotent cells into multipotent cells) somewhat, but the organs tend to be of significantly less quality, and seriously reduce life expectancy.

[MaximumZero]

Nah, they're both in the same city, and no interviews have been set up. It's just weird, you know? I busted my butt and looked everywhere to find a full time job and/or IT job for quite a while, and got nothing. Now, I wear a blue shirt part time. And then, while I'm at work, on the same day, I get two calls: one for a full time job, and the other for an IT project (that I could presumably do on the side of my part time job.) O_o

That's awesome dude!

Thanks. Also: A wild interview appears! It's a phone interview, though, which is always weird.

[Sirus]

Nah, they're both in the same city, and no interviews have been set up. It's just weird, you know? I busted my butt and looked everywhere to find a full time job and/or IT job for quite a while, and got nothing. Now, I wear a blue shirt part time. And then, while I'm at work, on the same day, I get two calls: one for a full time job, and the other for an IT project (that I could presumably do on the side of my part time job.) O_o

That's awesome dude!

Thanks. Also: A wild interview appears! It's a phone interview, though, which is always weird.

Hey man, a phone interview is still way better than no interview at all. At least you know you're being considered

[MaximumZero]

Nah, they're both in the same city, and no interviews have been set up. It's just weird, you know? I busted my butt and looked everywhere to find a full time job and/or IT job for quite a while, and got nothing. Now, I wear a blue shirt part time. And then, while I'm at work, on the same day, I get two calls: one for a full time job, and the other for an IT project (that I could presumably do on the side of my part time job.) O_o

That's awesome dude!

Thanks. Also: A wild interview appears! It's a phone interview, though, which is always weird.

Hey man, a phone interview is still way better than no interview at all. At least you know you're being considered

Indeed. I'm excited, but I'm not really going to hold my breath. Still haven't heard back about that IT project, either.

[scrdest]

Yeah all juices are basically all sugar. And you don't get the fiber that you would hope to get from the actual fruit. You could mix a NSA fruit juice with soda water though, which can be good. You can start juice-heavy and begin weaning yourself back until it's mostly soda water.

I didn't know the fruit juice was spying on us too! Fruit juice! I trusted you!

Nonono, you got it all wrong. That's how they get funded. What, you didn't think that selling juice is profitable enough to fund your own spy agency? Well, that's what all the existing ones want you to think...

[Sergarr]

There is so much snow right now it is almost unbelievable.

It's almost white-out conditions outside; you can barely see what's ahead of you. And the sidewalks weren't plowed. It was deeper than my boot was tall. Unfortunately about half-way home the sidewalk stops, and I half to either walk through a ditch or on the road. The road is too dangerous, and the ditch literally had snow up to my ass in height.

In other news, it is -5 C in Moscow right now, and it is predicted to rise up to +1 C before the next week.