What hath science done?

ríomhaire

ríomhaire

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http://www.nature.com/news/artificial-jellyfish-built-from-rat-cells-1.11046


Bioengineers have made an artificial jellyfish using silicone and muscle cells from a rat’s heart. The synthetic creature, dubbed a medusoid, looks like a flower with eight petals. When placed in an electric field, it pulses and swims exactly like its living counterpart.
[...]
“Morphologically, we’ve built a jellyfish. Functionally, we’ve built a jellyfish. Genetically, this thing is a rat,” says Kit Parker, a biophysicist at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, who led the work. The project is described today in Nature Biotechnology.
[...]
In 2007, Parker was searching for new ways of studying muscular pumps when he visited the New England Aquarium in Boston, Massachusetts. “I saw the jellyfish display and it hit me like a thunderbolt,” he says. “I thought: I know I can build that.” To do so, he recruited John Dabiri, a bioengineer who studies biological propulsion at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena. “I grabbed him and said, ‘John, I think I can build a jellyfish.’ He didn’t know who I was, but I was pretty excited and waving my arms, and I think he was afraid to say no.”
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That's awesome and all, but will it blend?
 
Raziaar said:
Bioengineer? More like god.
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You're overreacting. This thing isn't what I would call an independent, organic, living creature. It's more like a proof of concept for the technology to create synthetic organs, like human hearts. This "jellyfish" requires electricity from the scientists for it to function.
 
It also only does one thing and can't eat or repair itself, let along reproduce. It's more like mechanical engineering using life as parts than making life.
 
It also is a Jellyfish made from rat bits. Both of which are Satan's creatures, not God's.
 
I want to give it my loving.

edit: Woo! 700! *dances*
 
Yah, this thing is barely "artificial life" the only thing living about it is the cells and tissue. Without the electric pulses, it's essentially a flap of rat muscle.

But it's pretty cool though. Possibilities for being able to test drugs on it and even go on to use it as a platform for creating new organs are impressive.
 
That's really cool, I would love to see if they could make it "autonomous" (by that I mean not requiring an electric field) by adding some pacemaker cells or something like that.

EDIT: Well, looks like that's what they are planning anyways.
 
They said it was hauled from the Challenger Deep, but I'm positive that beast never swam in terrestrial waters until a week ago. There is tranquilizer gun in the shark cage, but I'm not sure it would work on this species … you're welcome to try.
 
I'm willing to bet that some team out there has done this before but its only gone public now. 2012 Doomsday people.

...I'm just waiting for the day when Griffins are made
 
Remus said:
You're overreacting. This thing isn't what I would call an independent, organic, living creature. It's more like a proof of concept for the technology to create synthetic organs, like human hearts. This "jellyfish" requires electricity from the scientists for it to function.
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Pfft.... I feel like god when I make a science experiment volcano. Your definition of god is too strict!
 
Remus said:
You're overreacting. This thing isn't what I would call an independent, organic, living creature. It's more like a proof of concept for the technology to create synthetic organs, like human hearts. This "jellyfish" requires electricity from the scientists for it to function.
Click to expand...
Really, I don't see why this is so great. I agree with you. You can run an electric current through a dead body and it will twitch and move. Doesn't mean it alive or anything. Pretty much any organic tissue will move with an electric current. They used to do that back in the old days (run electricity through a body) as a sideshow. Apparently it still amuses people :/
 
Dog-- said:
Really, I don't see why this is so great.
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It is great, for progress in creating artificial organs, and drug testing.

People are thinking OMG they are trying to create synthetic animals!11 That's not the point of this.
 
Remus said:
It is great, for progress in creating artificial organs, and drug testing.

People are thinking OMG they are trying to create synthetic animals!11 That's not the point of this.
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I don't know, I feel like while it may be a step forward in that regard, it is a definite baby step if anything.
 
Dog-- said:
I don't know, I feel like while it may be a step forward in that regard, it is a definite baby step if anything.
Click to expand...

For artificial organs, I agree that is a while off. Using this technology though I feel like it's not a stretch to design some organic "model" for which to test how drugs affect a certain tissue.
 
“You’ve got a heart drug?” says Parker. “You let me put it on my jellyfish, and I’ll tell you if it can improve the pumping.”
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Very cool.
 
264-intro.jpg


Fucking rat fuckers, all of ye!
 
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