Scientists grew a lamb in an artificial womb, & it could save human babies one day

When the world was introduced to the idea of artificial wombs in Aldous Huxley's Brave New World in 1932, his notions for growing human babies in glass containers was quite the pinnacle of science fiction.

Just 46 years later, Louise Brown would be the first human baby born via conception by in vitro fertilization - literally, in glass. And now, in 2017, scientists have grown a lamb in an artificial womb - not once, but twice, pushing the limits of human reproduction and ectogenesis, the science of reproducing womb-like conditions, to places Huxley himself could have never imagined. We are truly living in the future.

In April, researchers at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia successfully developed a fluid-filled "biobag" to help premature lambs develop outside the womb.

"Our system could prevent the severe morbidity suffered by extremely premature infants by potentially offering a medical technology that does not currently exist," said study leader and fetal surgeon Dr. Alan W. Flake.

2nd October 2017