Scientists have created a device called "EVATAR" that can mimic the human female reproductive cycle, culminating in the release of an egg:
Scientists say they've made a device in the lab that can mimic the human female reproductive cycle.
The researchers hope the device, assembled from living tissue, will lead to new treatments for many medical problems that plague some women, ranging from fibroids and endometriosis to infertility, miscarriages and gynecologic cancers.
The researchers described [open, DOI: 10.1038/ncomms14584] [DX] the device Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications and dubbed it the EVATAR. The name, they say, is a play on the word "avatar." "An avatar is kind of a digital representation of an individual in a virtual environment," says Teresa Woodruff, a biomedical engineer in the department of obstetrics and gynecology at Northwestern University who helped create the system. "So when we thought about this synthetic version of the female reproductive tract we thought of the word EVATAR."
To create the EVATAR, the researchers used tissues from human fallopian tubes, a uterus and cervix donated by women who had undergone surgery. The researchers placed each tissue type in separate plastic chambers that were connected through passageways that allows fluid to circulate among them. One chamber contained ovarian tissue from mice because human ovarian tissue is difficult to obtain.
The device is about the size of a paperback book. It also includes human liver tissue to filter toxins from the system. The researchers were able to trigger the system to produce the cascade of hormones that usually occur during a woman's 28-day reproductive cycle. The cycle culminated in the ovarian tissue releasing an egg. "We were able to recapitulate the full menstrual cycle — a complete menstrual cycle," Woodruff says.
[...] In the meantime, the Northwestern researchers have already started to work on a male equivalent of the EVATAR. They've created a system involving male testes and prostate tissue they call the "Dude Cube." They are working on a more complex system that would connect the Dude Tube to other parts of the anatomy — a system they dub the "ADATAR."
Step 1: Pretend you are researching infertility treatments. Step 2: ???. Step 3: Begin production of artificial wombs.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 02 2017, @09:02AM (1 child)
Now, if they make these fun to use, we will finally have complete gender equality.
N.B. I deliberately mis-spelled the subject so I would not render this topic NSFW...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 02 2017, @09:45AM
I dub it "Sleevatar"
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Sunday April 02 2017, @09:56AM (1 child)
Begin production of artificial wombs.
I recall reading about an experiment in Asia that grow a fetus for a few weeks in an artificial womb or such but which were terminated due to ethical concerns. Besides what is officially known and what is done is two different things.
I suspect we might see the beginning on a path that will open a whole can of worms.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 02 2017, @10:34AM
If they haven't produced a full grown baby yet, it's impossible to know if the system is effective. One missed variable and the baby has birth defects.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Sunday April 02 2017, @10:26AM (3 children)
More research to bump up human fertility. Like planet Earth isn't overpopulated as it is...
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Sunday April 02 2017, @10:30AM
Those who can afford those methods don't have too many children.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 02 2017, @07:01PM (1 child)
First, I have noticed that the people who talk about overpopulation tend to be self-loathing types in the better areas of the world. With the exception of Mao's China, it's always white people, who are already a tiny sliver of the world's population. Hmmm. This is oddly self-destructive. I suppose it's no longer politically correct to talk about the 3rd world overpopulation.
Second, evolution is real. There is no escape, even for modern humans. People who resist reproducing with wild abandon are selected against. By an evolutionary standard, they are unfit. We have temporarily slowed population growth by suddenly changing the environment with birth control, but this will be overcome. It is as certain as the Sun rising. Evolution doesn't care how this happens, but mental differences are an obvious strong possibility. In our population today we can see that some people have larger families than others. These people pass their DNA and culture to the next generation. Our population is going to increase until we are starving and dying, and there is absolutely nothing that can stop this in the long term. Squalor is the normal state of all living beings.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 02 2017, @07:28PM
There will be an evolution of class. Money is the new fitness. Those with money will continue to divide up the world's resources for themselves, and resist the squalid poor with militaries, well-paid security guards, or robots.
(Score: 3, Touché) by inertnet on Sunday April 02 2017, @11:06AM (3 children)
Does that book get irritable every month?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 02 2017, @11:05PM (1 child)
Does it bleed for 3 days and not die?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 03 2017, @05:07AM
The cervical tissue isn't HeLa cells, so it will probably die.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 03 2017, @09:30AM
That depends on how fast you read it. :-)
(Score: 2, Insightful) by khallow on Sunday April 02 2017, @01:14PM
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Sunday April 02 2017, @07:05PM
This is an important step towards being able to decant children like decent civilized people rather than having to give birth to them like those weird Savages. Combine that with airborne birth control, and we'll be able to do away with such vulgar concepts as "family" and "parent".
Next, of course, comes figuring out exactly how to condition them so that the Epsilon Minus's think that being an Epsilon Minus is the best thing ever, so they'll never challenge the authority of the Deltas, Gammas, Betas, and Alphas.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.