"Artificial jellyfish" created from rat cells (and polymer)

Adam Khor

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/07/22/swimming-jellyfish-built-out-rat-cells-silicone/

Am I the only one who thinks this is just wrong for some reason?


PS- Sorry I meant to post this in Zoology :pac: Im kind of half asleep :S

Galvasean

Kind of creepy alright.

Rubecula

Creepy? Man alive that sort of thing gives me nightmares. What will be next, (to study for scientific purposes of course) A 40' man eating blob?

Sometimes I think I would have prefered to be a Victorian.

Adam Khor

Rubecula wrote: »

Creepy? Man alive that sort of thing gives me nightmares. What will be next, (to study for scientific purposes of course) A 40' man eating blob?

Sometimes I think I would have prefered to be a Victorian.

Me too :pac:

r3nu4l

This is a fantastic advance imo. I've been in Medtronic's offices just outside Geneva and in the reception area there are display pedestals with samples of their pacemakers and cardiac rhythm management devices over the years. The earliest ones required the user to carry a battery pack, later ones didn't but were massively bulky in the body and had to be adjusted quite a lot. These days these devices are much smaller and slimmer and can be adjusted remotely in many instances.

This development reminds me of the 'nanoprobes' used by the Borg in Star Trek. That doesn't creep me out though, I look forward to the day when these sorts of devices can be termporarily injected into the bloodstream to carry out repair duties in blood vessels before being withdrawn. Imagine, spending perhaps 10 minutes in a walk-in clinic to have a procedure carried out that today takes hours of surgery and months of recovery time. Yes please.

Not sure this is really a zoology issue but it's a great discussion nonetheless.