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Science

Rabbits' Male Members Grown In Labs 49

Posted by Hemos from the for-all-those-accident-people dept.
knobbie writes "The CBC reports in this article that, "Tissue engineers have successfully replaced rabbits' penises with segments grown in the lab from the creatures' own cells.""
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Rabbits' Male Members Grown In Labs More

Rabbits' Male Members Grown In Labs

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  • ENLARGE YOUR PENIS BY 4 INCHES OR MORE!!! (Score:5, Funny)

    by eggstasy ( 458692 ) on Friday September 13, 2002 @08:33PM (#4254847) Journal
    With a new, laboratory tested procedure!
    Order now for only $19.95!
    • Just when I thought my hotmail account couldn't hold any more penis spam, you bastards find a way to double it. (No doubt in 60 days or my money back).

      On the radio, in my email, on late night tv, in popup ads, everyone seems to think I have a tiny penis. I consider used to consider it 'space-efficent' but now I'm starting to develope a complex.

  • My dream... (Score:2, Funny)

    by hitzroth ( 60178 )
    of a twelve inch "pianist" is at hand!

  • Oops! (Score:4, Insightful)

    by smoondog ( 85133 ) on Friday September 13, 2002 @08:38PM (#4254871)
    You accidently put the einstein icon where there should have been a foot. Please correct...

    -Sean
  • My question is...why the penis?

    Aren't there a whole number of organs they could have "experimented" with? What of livers, hearts even limbs?
    • My question is...why the penis?

      Remember how all the magazines used to say that the only profitable business on the web is porn? Remember how all the magazines were saying that biotech is the "next big thing" like the internet was a few years ago?

      Put two and two together and you have your answer. :)

      • Remember how all the magazines used to say that the only profitable business on the web is porn? Remember how all the magazines were saying that biotech is the "next big thing" like the internet was a few years ago?

        Put two and two together and you have your answer. :)


        I don't know a helluva lot about rabbit anatomy, but I don't think the rabbit penis qualifies as the "next big thing" by any measure.
        • I don't know a helluva lot about rabbit anatomy, but I don't think the rabbit penis qualifies as the "next big thing" by any measure.

          It's a mammal, with as complex a body and biology as our own.

          Make something work (reliably) under these test conditions, and humans are not very far away.
    • >Aren't there a whole number of organs they could have "experimented" with?

      Clearly yes. In fact the same lab is also working with hearts [childrenshospital.org], kidneys, and bladder cells [cnn.com] and there are many other research groups studying tissue engineering with various tissues, for example this group [harvard.edu] at Mass. General. A key word here is tissue-- typically they are using a fairly homogenous population of cells and putting it on a matrix in the right shape. Limbs are coming, but they need to have skin, muscle, nerves and bone all made and assembled properly, which is very complex compared to just growing, say, some skin.

    • If John Bobbit and the subsequent "Not Guilty" verdict against Lorena, who admitted to the crime, are any indication, this technology may become important in the future...

  • weird (Score:2, Funny)

    by radiashun ( 220050 )
    what's up with all the penis news lately? Newscientist.com [newscientist.com] has an article on the discovery of the oldest fossilized penises here [newscientist.com]. Must be a slow news week :-/
    • also, they found a fossilzed pile of vomit. check out the story here [newscientist.com].
    • The articles, "Pterosaur skull suggests sex and violence" and "Oldest fossilised vomit pile uncovered", linked to from that Newscientist.com article seem not too far from the toilet too. I kind of wonder if that is intentional.

  • ...will take advantage of this.

    BTW, does anybody have the phone number of the researchers?

  • Hmm? (Score:2, Funny)

    by Ryan Stortz ( 598060 )
    So now when a girl tells you you're hung like a furry woodland creature...it's not as bad as it was before?
  • ... for the John Wayne Bobbits of the world!

    I'll be really impressed when we see more complex
    apendages, like hands, feet, and, or course, heads.

    • I'll be really impressed when we see more complex apendages, like hands, feet, and, or course, heads.

      Oh yeah, that'll work, romantic dinner for two, sparkling conversation, gets all hot and heavy, she undoes your trousers and "It's a hand! Get away from me you FREAK!" ;-)

  • Current methods involve injecting fat cells or "pulling out" more of the internal part of the organ.
    Is it just me or the fact that they put the words pulling out in quotes a bit strange? It's almost as if the article was written by some horned up teenager.
  • Mr. Dewclaw [kevinandkell.com], you too can ENLARGE....
  • In case anybody's wondering, this particular technique is not useful for sex change surgery because the scientists start with tissue samples from the subject and grow them up to make more. This is great in that it avoids any graft-vs-host problems, but if you start out with no penis tissue, you can't make any. It could some day be very helpful for boys born with a micropenis, or following certain types of accidents which befall genetic males... (are you cringing now?)
    • Women can get erect clits...
    • Well, from what I have read of biology, there really isn't a big difference in the tissue of male and female genitial, more in how its aranged. We all start "female" you know, its just that at a certain time in the womb, we start produceing different hormones and that steers our developement in a slightly different direction. If you look at human anatomy, it seems very obvious to me, the common origins of our sex organs. Tesicles are simply lowered, altered overies for one thing. Being they had to shape the penis anyways, I don't see why you couldn't create one out of a woman's tissue sample. For a computer geek, I will admit being fairly well introduced to the wonderfull differences between men and women, but when you really look at it, we aren't all that different. (Please excuse my spelling, I'm a sleep deprived 3rd shifter today)
  • In different news [yahoo.com], scientists also have discovered a 100 million year old penis (two, actually), the oldest one ever found. Is it just the time of year for penises in the news? Does the end-of-summer news hole need to get filled?

    Incidentally, the other article also says that the one grown in the lab works more like that of a 60 year old--rabbit? Doesn't sound too attractive, unless you happen to be an 80 year old rabbit, I suppose.

  • Heart (Score:2)

    by tsa ( 15680 )
    Ha, this gives me hope. I'm still waiting for a new heart that is grown this way.
  • good lord... where were these guys when john bobbit [laughnet.net] was in need?

    I would like to know how the doctors measured the "stiffness" of the bunny member after the procedure. What exactly is the "unit' of measurment used? I suppose they could use torque to see at what point the angle of the dangle ceases to remain static. Here are a few other methods of really measuring stiffness [google.com].

    I'm glad that I didn't go into the medical field -- how do you explain to your wife or husband that you were playing with erectile tissue [abc.net.au] all day at the office.
  • This is going to create trends that spiral out of control. Soon guys will be carrying around their huge bulges in wheelbarrels. We will finally out-do the Peacok as a species.
  • Wonderfull!


    Now i can stop praying to pull a reverse michael jackson to get a huge penis!

  • by the phrase "test tube penis"? The mental image this conjures up for me is of a laboratory full of test tubes containing some disgusting looking growth medium and huge, fleshy penises in various states of development. And of course this is going to be tended by the most miserable grad students in the world.

    Grad Student 1: "Hey, where are you doing your research"

    Grad Student 2, (mumbled):"Errrrmmmm, test tube penis lab"

    Grad Student 1:"What, where are you working? I couldn't hear you"

    Grad Student 2 (losing it completely):"Test tube penis lab. Goddamnit, I'm working in the test tube penis lab, four fucking years of busting my ass as an undergrad, thousands of dollars spent on tuition, books and crystal meth for those last minute finals week studiy binges, studying for the GRE, debasing myself before admissions officials and I end up in the test tube penis lab. Why God? Why! Why hast thou forsaken me? Will not this cup pass from me?" breaks down in sobs

    Grad Student 1:"Test tube penis lab???? Bwah, hah, hah, hah, hah, hah, hah, hah

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