Swedish magazine runs article about species dysphoria

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Content warnings: Implicit comparison between therianthropy and transsexuality.

August: A wolf therianthrope named Susitar published a short article in a Swedish-language feminist online magazine. The August issue’s theme was “The body,” and the editors had called at a Pride festival for articles from young queer people. The article is about Susitar’s experiences with species dysphoria. For more information, see Susitar’s post on the Werelist forum about it.

- O. Scribner



Source

Susitar (Lanina), “Personal text about species dysphoria published.” 2013-08-15. The Werelist: A therianthrope community resource (forum). http://www.werelist.net/forums/showthread.php?t=33216

Susitar Lykantrophona, “Hyfsat snygg för att vara apa (Pretty good looking for an ape.)” 2013-08. Ballers: Feministiskt Livsstilsmagasin (online magazine). http://ballers.se/2013/08/15/hyfsat-snygg-for-att-vara-apa/ Automatic translation into English, beware of translation errors: http://translate.google.se/translate?sl=sv&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=sv&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fballers.se%2F2013%2F08%2F15%2Fhyfsat-snygg-for-att-vara-apa%2F&act=url

Posted with permission from Susitar. Thank you, Susitar.

3D printing bone, skin, organ implants

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Content warnings: Gross stuff. Medical. Anatomy. Implants. Injuries. Experiments on animals. Cancer. Some of the linked articles have photos of some artificial organs.

August: Tissue engineers are developing 3-D printing methods for creating body parts that can be implanted in living people. These body parts can be designed to be a perfect fit for the patient, so their body is less likely to reject the implant. The bio-engineers are already experimenting with making:

- Bones. Based on ceramic powder, bones that are custom-made to fit could replace bones that are too heavily damaged to repair.
- Blood vessels. Necessary for creating other organs. Nobody has made artificial organs with blood vessels in them yet, because it’s so complicated in there.
- Ears. Made of a cartilage gel, molded to match a 3D scan of the patient’s other ear. Cartilage is difficult with traditional tissue engineering, but with 3D printing, it’s easy, especially because cartilage doesn’t have blood vessels in it.
- Skin grafts. Creating skin from scratch, and printing it directly onto a wound. (Traditionally, you’d have to take a skin graft from somewhere else on the patient’s body, so fixing one wound means making another one.)
- Kidneys. Made of a cell culture from the patient, placed in a biodegradable scaffold. Engineers have successfully made a tiny, live kidney, but not yet a working kidney that could be implanted.

Although engineers are still working on the basics, someday lab-grown tissues could go beyond replacing a body part. Artificial body parts could be designed to do things that the original body parts couldn’t. Not only could we make a bionic ear from 3-D printed cartilage, engineers propose that they could also add to it a super-human hearing ability, or even a “sixth sense” to detect radio and electromagnetism. On the more practical side of survival, neurologists wouldn’t have to open up a brain cancer patient’s skull extra times if they replace a piece of the skull with a transparent window made of a material based on dental ceramic. Such a transparent skull implant has already been tested in animals. Through that window, neurologists could do laser treatments, and have an easier time scanning and monitoring the brain's healing process.


Sources

Steven Leckart, “Five body parts scientists can 3-D print.” 2013-08-16. Popular Science (online magazine). http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2013-07/5-body-parts-scientists-can-3-d-print

Susan Young, “Cyborg parts: Princeton researchers, using a 3-D printer, have built a bionic ear with integrated electronics.” 2013-08-12. MIT Technology Review (online news). http://www.technologyreview.com/demo/517991/cyborg-parts/ (Actually, the article sounds more like the lab team proposed that they could build such an ear, not that they have actually made one. I’m not sure.)

Honor Whiteman, “Transparent skull implant provides ‘window to the brain.’” 2013-09-04. Medical News Today (online news). http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/265634.php