THE LIFE AFTER LIFE CONSPIRACY

Synthetic windpipes, and kidneys "printed" in 3-D

Matt Ridley's article in the Wall Street Journal (July 16, 2011) begins with a mention of a synthetic windpipe grown with the patient's own cells. It was then successfully implanted in the patient, and he went home. (I've seen other accounts of this particular operation, and will include them here another time.)

Meanwhile, Dr. Anthony Atala at Wake Forest University is experimenting with "printing" whole kidneys, using something akin to an ink-jet printer.  The procedure is still experimental and not able to turn out actual usable human kidneys, just replicas.  But the time will come.

As I've written elsewhere on this blog, the concepts I put forth in the early version of my sci-fi thriller, THE LIFE AFTER LIFE CONSPIRACY, were rejected by the publishing powers-that-be (rather "powers-that-were") as, paraphrasing, "too far out, impossible, just not ever going to happen."  Well, that was then, and a lot of it is happening around us now . . . though not yet the "Vehicles."

Here's the link to the Matt Ridley article:

WSJ article: How close are we to "printing" new organs?

Chimp Donnie and "Category Three" experiments.

When I wrote Chimp Donnie into The Life After Life Conspiracy, I thought I was  going really far out onto the far side of what was likely to come about in the reasonable future.

As with a lot of the other elements in the book, reality is moving very fast, and what seemed far-out is now approaching. 

Now (July 2011) a group of scientists have developed a report proposing new rules on "humanising animals." (The scientists---not the humanised animals--- are mostly British, hence I'm using the British spelling.)

One of their areas of prime concern is "Category Three" experiments, which raise "very strong ethical concerns."  Dr. Doug Dalby --- who's one of the good guys in my book --- pushed the then-limits and did just that. Tsk, tsk, shame on him.  From whence came the story.

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Here's the link to one of several articles on that topic that came out in July 2011, most from British newspapers:

Independent, UK: "Experts warn over humanising apes"