Robert J. Bradbury <bradbury@www.aeiveos.com> wrote:
> > Stem cell research will soon obviate any need for whole
> > part/organ replacement, I'm guessing -- at least in many cases.
>
> I'm of the opinion that one of the major problems is the
> cell division rate. How long does it take you to grow
> a 5 kg (?) liver from a single cell with a 24 hour
> doubling time?
What are the limits to organ growth? Simple exponentional doubling will get you there rather fast, even with a 24 hour doubling time. What are we talking about here, one trillion cells or so? That's 40 days. This won't help an accident victim which needs a replacement *now*, but for your typical degenerative diseases there's ample warning time.
-- Christian "naddy" Weisgerber naddy@mips.rhein-neckar.de