Scientists Make a Heart in a Lab

I received a Wired article this morning about scientists growing a heart and was amazed. Now that I’ve got your attention, here come the conditions…

It was a rat’s heart, not a human one.
It required cells from a newborn rat’s heart. Those cells were then added to a cadaver’s heart
The heart only beat in a dish. It was not transplanted into a rat.

None of those conditions should come as a surprise as innovation always has to start somewhere. The possibilities seem endless. Cancer got your lungs from smoking too much? Why not just get new ones? If we can replace body parts as simply as one replaces a water pump for a car, how long could the average person will live? It seems like science is on the brink of being able to expand our longevity significantly.

Let me stop you before you go get that pack of Camels. I think I’ve been reading articles of amazing medical breakthroughs for about 20 years now. Some of them translate into true medical procedures - others fade away. There’s no guarantee that this, or any other early medical success is going to help you down the line. It’s best to remember that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

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