(From KnightRidder). At the boundary of engineering and medicine, there is a thriving industry engaged in extending healthy life span by building replacement parts for worn organs. In the long run, engineering and biology will merge - into regenerative medicine, tissue engineering and ultimately "wet" nanotechnology. In the meanwhile, we are in the era of artificial hearts, replacement joints, and early stage controlled growth of tissue. We should expect impressive improvements in this field in the years ahead - assuming that regulatory roadblocks are kept to a minimum. "The federal government, research universities, foundations and private companies are betting big bucks on bioengineering."
Link: http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/9495173.htm