The New Frankenstein

Oscar, modular body

Anatoly Budko, Geektimes based on themodularbody materials

In the video above, appetizing-looking pieces of meat lie on the flat surface of the table. But this is not a recipe for a barbecue on May Day. Researcher Cornelis Vlasman shows Oscar, a biotechnological project to create an artificial modular body. The body is assembled like a child's constructor. First, the brain module needs a heart module, then the lungs and kidneys are added. The modules begin to interact and work together. Gradually it reaches the extremities, and the body begins to move, looking for the optimal temperature of 37 °.

As it is easy to guess from the absence of armed representatives of several interested government agencies in the room, this is a science fiction project. What is presented is not real. But the materials are interesting to get acquainted with at least the quality of execution.

So, judging by Vlasman's fictional LinkedIn profile, the whole project took more than 11 years. But the results were worth it: a fully modular body was created, for which there are many different configurations.

The central Oscar module is a four-chamber heart. It pushes the body's blood through the blood vessels and internal organs.

The blood itself for the operation of the system is donated by a human researcher and stored in the refrigerator frozen. (Baby is a little vampire: he needs a blood supply every day.) The problem so far is the lack of an immune system, but work is underway.

The videos touch on the issues of how the heart works and is created.

The authors have succeeded in the genre of a scientific video commented on by a mechanical machine voice.

This is how limbs are created that allow Oscar to make funny and cute movements in their meaninglessness.

The handles are attached to the body using a magnetic connection. The blood flow and the signal for the muscles pass through it.

The head of everything is the Electronic Nervous System module. He controls the activity of the body: feels the environment, breathes, makes the heart beat. The brain is a microcontroller, and writing code presented a lot of problems.

The team uses a special bioprinter to create modules. The biomaterial for it is borrowed from Vlasman's body. This requires stem cells.

The project faces many issues, and not all of them are solved by printing. The current legislation lacks the necessary norms. The body does not know how to think, it is only looking for the right temperature for it. It is unclear if he is aware of himself. The goals are unclear. What does Vlasman want? Offspring without the participation of a woman? Substitutability of body parts? Immortality?

How real is Oscar?

A lot of time and talent has been invested in the media project: the videos skillfully imitate recordings of TV shows, Skype video conferences and scientific videos. This particular implementation is a beautiful near–scientific hoax. But she didn't come out of nowhere.

You can make a whole list of news and materials that could be the inspiration for creating a fictional homunculus. Bioprinters are so close that there is an article "Bioprinter with your own hands" in the DIY hub on "Giktimes". In the future, organs can be grown on a 3D printer. Research is underway on growing limbs: artificial paws of rats already exist. The head of the Russian programmer is going to be transplanted to another body. They talk about it seriously and set an approximate date for the operation. Experiments on mice and monkeys have already been conducted.

In the thirties of the last century, it was possible to maintain the life of the dog's head for a short time. If you really go into history, even before the Frankenstein monster, medieval alchemists were raving about the idea of creating a living being. Paracelsus compiled a detailed recipe for creating a homunculus. You need to put fresh human sperm in a vessel, bury it in horse manure for forty days. It is necessary to produce some kind of "magnetization" that will help the embryo to acquire flesh. Then the disembodied creature needs 40 weeks to artificially feed arcanum sanguinis hominis, the secret life force of man – blood. It will turn out to be a baby, which will later grow to the size of an adult.

Five hundred years have passed. Today, hardly anyone would think of maintaining a stable near-human temperature with decomposing horse manure. Strange occult recipes are a thing of the past. New technologies have appeared in the arsenal of mankind, which previously could only be considered magic. They are still in the embryo, at the earliest stages of development. But the fictional Oscar can hardly be distinguished from the real medical research.

Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru  19.04.2016