• Lumisal@lemmy.world
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    4 hours ago

    Just want to point out, even with billions, an artificial womb would still not be seen for decades.

    Even something like growing a kidney has been incredibly difficult. A whole human would require essentially first fully understanding the whole process of pregnancy and how a fetus affects the body, and then maybe artificial organoids as well. It would probably be easier to figure out how to grow a brain first.

    Basically this is like the old saying of how you can’t make 9 women make 1 baby in 1 month.

    • WoodScientist@lemmy.world
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      2 hours ago

      IDK. Looking at that wikipedia article, the progress looks pretty good.

      Also, just on a conceptual level, growing a whole embryo may be a lot easier than growing a single organ. Organs really aren’t designed to grow by themselves. A fetus is designed to grow and develop. It needs a nutrient supply.

      But I think of it as the difference between trying to figure out how to grow plants in aquaponics vs trying to somehow coax plant cells to grow a flower without the rest of the flower plant present.