Sorry religious zealots, nothing to see in this stem cell story to get you riled up, move along.

MSNBC is reporting that scientists in Finland have successfully transplanted a new jaw in a 65 year old man that had lost his upper jaw earlier due to a tumor. This new jaw however was cultivated from the man’s own stem cells, grown within his abdomen for 9 months then grafted into place with the remaining jaw bone material.

Grafting in a transplant bone is not new, but having a new bone material with it’s own new blood vessels grown from scratch and designed to be compatible with the recipient of the transplant is what’s cool about this operation.

We’ve known for years that stem cells hold the keys to radical and previously un-thought of surgical capabilities that a decade ago you would have thought would only be possible in sci-fi movies.

And now being able to extract stem cells from something other than embryos removed the religious zealots from the picture opening up possibilities I’m anxious to hear about moving forward. What are they going to fight science over now? Give them time, they’re always spoiling for a good fight.

Question: If it’s this easy, with our simple 21st century technology, to build a custom replacement body part, why did Luke Skywalker have to settle on a robotic forearm and hand at the end of Empire Strikes Back as opposed to receiving a new flesh and blood part?

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