Jacket Grown from Living Tissue

RangerRick98 writes "Wired has a story about growing jackets from living tissue. The jacket is grown using "a biodegradable polymer as a base," a coating of 3T3 mouse cells (which apparently continue to grow and split even after being removed from their host), and human bone cells for rigidity. The jacket grown so far is only about 2 x 1.4 inches. The hope is that when the polymer degrades, the jacket will retain its structure. The focus behind this work is 'victimless' leather."

Comments

"Victimless leather"?!?

[El]

Why don't scientists instead concentrate on breeding a cow that enjoys being eaten and having it's skin made into leather goods?

Save the cows.

[hoggoth]

> The focus behind this work is 'victimless' leather

This is great news. Hopefully someday soon we can grow all of our leather clothing. Once we attain that proud accomplishment we can then dump the remains of cows slaughtered for meat in a landfill instead of using their hides for clothing.

Re:Save the cows.

[blincoln]

We're growing cattle for their meat anyway - if we can't or won't use the leather (a byproduct of the cow) it would just go to waste.

Growing cattle en masse for meat is one of the worst possible things that can be done for the environment. It contributes to global warming through greenhouse gases, wastes agricultural space by growing feed and using water that could go to humans instead, et cetera.

A lot of cattle are even raised at the expense of rainforests, because people in e.g. South America will slash and burn e.g. the Amazon to make places to raise them.

The main reason that the meat industry is profitable is because they are able to sell so many by-products to be used in so many other ways - leather, gelatin, and so on. If, for example, cheaper vat-grown alternatives were used, I expect that meat prices would increase dramatically, and maybe Americans would end up eating food that is actually good for them and the planet instead of clogging up their arteries and digestive tract and helping to ensure the doom of the biosphere.

I would buy one of these jackets in a second if they were available commercially, but in the meantime I've found that Vegetarian Shoes' synthetic material lasts longer than the real thing anyway.

Intresting science, but of questionable use.

[LordZardoz]

As one poster already pointed out, its not like we slaughter cows just to wear their skins, and toss the rest of the cow in a landfill. Its not like it really improves the cows outlook once it reaches the slaughter house.

Even if this ends up being more economically viable then using cow hides, this will still offend those who view this kind of science as an abomination. Instead of slaughtering cows for their skins, were now tinkering in 'gods' playground, pissing around with the building blocks of life.

And the sort of person who complains about using leather is also likely to be the sort that complains about genetically modified foods.

END COMMUNICATION

Victimless?

[Anonymous Coward]

The focus behind this work is 'victimless' leather."

So where do they get the human bones from? Or aren't we supposed to ask that?

It rubbs the lotion on its skin...

Re:Life

[blincoln]

As has arisen in the post numerously, killing is natural. Combining skin and bone cells to grow a coat is not.

Dying at age 30 because you live in a mud hut with no healthcare and drink from a river that is used for waste disposal is natural.

Prolonging your life to 80 years or older through the use of pharmaceuticals and medical care is not.

Having twelve children of which more than half die off is natural.

Using birth control to limit or eliminate offspring altogether is not.

Humans consuming every possible resource until they've laid waste to the land like a plague of locusts is natural.

Consciously choosing to limit the use of unnecessary resources to benefit the other species on the planet is not.

We are not a natural species anymore; we are a technologically-augmented race. Growing things in a lab is just an extension of what we've been doing for the last few centuries. There are too many of us to live in a "natural" way, and the vast majority of us wouldn't want to if we really knew what it meant.