"Maybe now I'll be able to read my diploma!"
Posted on 11/27/2006 1:07:05 AM PST by LibWhacker
In a feat once as unlikely as the miller's daughter of fairytale fame spinning straw into gold, scientists in the United Kingdom have spun fine threads of biocompatible silicone that contain living human brain cells. The cells remained alive and capable of growth afterward, they say.
"This has far-reaching implications and will enable significant advances to be made in technologies ranging from tissue engineering to regenerative medicine," Suwan N. Jayasinghe and Andrea Townsend-Nicholson state in their report.
It appeared Nov. 13 in ACS' Biomacromolecules, a bimonthly journal. "The ability to electrospin biologically active threads and scaffolds of living organisms will be tremendously useful for the development of a whole host of novel bioengineering and medical applications."
Electrospinning is a well-established process for drawing fibers out of a thick polymer by use of an electric field. The scientists used an electrospinning approach in which a concentrated suspension of living cells flowed through a tiny inner needle while thick poly(dimethylsiloxane) flowed from an outer needle. The silicone material formed a fiber around the cells. One of the many topics awaiting study, the researchers said, is how the process affects the biological properties of the cells in the long term.
This is all the more astonishing when one considers how few human beings there are who contain living human brain cells.
Wow, now women have the option of smart silicone implants to increase brain power!
We need the picture of that "I wish these were brains" chick. LOL
"The silicone chip inside her head gets switched to overload..."
How else would one build smart cheese to combat the smart mice?
If there's hope for the Scarecrow from Oz, there's hope for Al Gore.
More than creepy.
Rope that ties good knots in itself?
......smart silicone implants....
the smart boob. It is a sure sell to moms who want their kid to get into a good kindergarten
OK...I'll ask....
Where did they get the "living human brain cells" for this experiment?
You wake up one morning thinking you've got to drop the kids off at school, go to the gym, pay some bills, shop for dinner, and . . . Oh, wait . . . You don't exist except as a collection of one-dimensional brain cells in a big bundle of wires and that technician over there is coming over here to unplug you . . . AAAIIIEEE!!!
Future tech ping
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spooky ping
Hey, them brain cells is mine! I only left them on the couch for a few minutes while I went to get another beer, and now they're gone. Would'a been wool fiber, but we just recovered the couch.
Dang, can't find my glasses, either...
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