Historic Processes

A Big Moment In Transplant Medicine


This is big news.

The world's first organs grown in a laboratory have been successfully implanted in humans, heralding a new era in transplant surgery.

Seven patients given new bladders grown from their own cells have functioning organs that have performed as well as those conventionally repaired but with none of the ill effects, scientists have revealed.

Experts hailed the "stunning" development, which marks a new frontier in the search for replacement body parts. Scientists behind the breakthrough are now trying to grow up to 20 other organs and tissues.

Throughout the Western world, thousands of people die every year waiting for donor organs and thousands more never make it on to the waiting-lists; the potential benefits are enormous.

Instead of relying on organs from other bodies, doctors are investigating replacements grown by farming human tissue.

Anthony Atala, director of the Institute for Regenerative Medicine at Wake Forest University School of Medicine, North Carolina, who led the trial, said it was a vital step forward. "We have shown regenerative medicine techniques can be used to generate functional bladders that are durable," he said.

"This suggests regenerative medicine may one day be a solution to the shortage of donor organs in this country for those needing transplants."

Professor Atala is working on growing 20 tissues and organs, including blood vessels and hearts, in the laboratory.

Catherine Kielty, professor of medical biochemistry at the UK Centre for Tissue Engineering at Manchester University, said: "It is an exciting development. To my knowledge, a whole organ grown in the laboratory has not been tested in humans before. It is an engineered organ which has proved functional."

The ramifications are endless. This is the breakthrough medicine has been looking for. It will change our world when we can grow organs in a petri dish and replace our broken parts.

World War I Posters Go Internet Display

Of all places, Tokyo Univeristy's graduate school haas a collection of 661 WWI propaganda posters from the USA, which they've now made available to the public on the internet. It's quite interesting.

The on above is obviously inviting people to buy war bonds. 99 years ago, America entered th war kicking and screaming. most Americans didn't see the point of invloving themselves in confflicts abroad. A century later, it seems it's de rigeur for the American Administrations to go to war.

Penny For Your Thoughts Captain
In yesterday's 17-hit 15-run barrage, A-Rod hit a Grand slam home run.
The pic above is A-Rod, just having crossing the plate. Behind him is Captain Clutch, walking back to the dugout and for some reason he doesn't look too happy. Or is this business as ususal face? I just sort of wondered.

Asterisk Moment
Meanwhile, Barry Bonds is reaping what he has sown.

So this is how the great chase of Babe Ruth and Hank Aaron plays out, wholly without grace. An event to be mocked. A celebration of the absurd rather than of sporting achievement. An embarrassment for baseball and a burden for the Giants. Syringes on the field. Double entendres in the stands. Investigators wading into the muck. The class act Vin Scully telling the Los Angeles Times he hopes he's not unlucky enough to have to call home run number 756.

Consider what happened Monday evening in San Diego. In his first game since being catalogued by the book Game of Shadows as a serial steroid user and effectively being placed under investigation by the office of the commissioner, Barry Bonds was Tonya Harding. A punch line. An object of ridicule. His teammate Omar Vizquel said that Bonds was heckled by children, for goodness sake, during batting practice.

"Today it was kind of bad,'' Vizquel said.

Oh, that was just a start. Fans littered the stands with placards that questioned everything about Bonds, from the legitimacy of his records to the size of his head and genitalia. A reporter asked Bonds quite seriously if the syringe thrown near him on the field had a needle. Giants staffers were in full panic mode trying to tamp down the brush fire of questions to players about all things Bonds, and a weariness had already settled over the clubhouse about this elephant in the room that will dominate their season.

"And this is only Day One," one Giant said, shaking his head.

It's not looking like the way things should have been. When Aaron was chasing Ruth, it was considered bad enough that he was black, but this is different. Barry Bonds has spent his career alienating the press and now he's not going to get any favours from anybody, regardless of and because of what he has achieved with the help of steroids.

Koizumi Is Now All-Time Third
Junichiro Koizumi is now the 3rd longest Post WWII Prime Minister of Japan. The longest was Eisaku Satoh at 2798days; second was Shigeru Yoshida at 2616 days. At 1806 days, Koizumi shares third place with former PM Yasuhiro Nakasone. That's right, the guy who declared he wanted Japan to be the unsinkable Aircraft carrier for the USA and revelled in his 'Ron and Yasu' diplomacy with Ronald Reagan. Compared to Nakasone, Koizumi's tenure has been quite hip and responsive to the needs of the population, with massive reforms put into place. Not only is he a historic PM, he's going to be remembered as one of the greats.