I had to chime in on this one because as some of you know, I had a liver transplant almost seven years ago which required over 100 staples to close up the incisions, and one or two popped out while they were still in me!!! It sure would've been nice to have had them welded instead at least from a cosmetic perspective...

The plastic surgeons are probably salivating over this potential new business coming their way - wait a minute! Maybe those of us who already know how to weld metals could become proficient enough with this process on tissues of the human anatomy and demand the compensation that usually is reserved for surgeons then - maybe not!

After all, we would have to go back to school again to become a medical doctor, go through residency and all that is required in becoming a full fledged practicing medical doctor before we could even learn how to perform this procedure... Not to leave out the importance of knowing welding "Tissuelurgy" much like welding Metallurgy because like different metals, not all tissue is the same or is to be welded the same way :)

About two years after my surgery, I read an article in "Scientific American" that this had already been successfully done in the NIH research labs so, this news does'nt surprise me at all...

Do'nt get me wrong though, I think it's GREAT that the AWS is making this known to all of us and no offense to the E.O. Paton Institute's own efforts to advance this even further!!!

Now if they need "Guniea Pigs" to push this type of biotechnology further, I'll volunteer!!! Maybe they can cosmetically repair the awful looking scars I have on my abdomen so that I could go swimming without a tee shirt on and, not scare anyone in the water or when I get out of the water...
Yep, I think it would be worth the pain!!!

Btw, they would probably give you a local anasthetic before they remove a layer or two of your skin or even just scrape some of it off your skin, grow it so that they have enough tissue to perform test welds, cut coupons, pull a tensile, you get the idea... The pain will come later (:>)

The only problems that they would have at first is with tissue coming from other organs (the largest organ of your body is your skin) because, some organs do not grow that well outside of the living body, eg; Brain, pancreas, large & small instestines to name a few... Even nerve or muscle tissue would initially pose a problem at first but, I'm sure they'll find a way to get around the present limitations eventually.

I personally have around 6 feet of scars on my body, face and head that could use some repair welding on them for cosmetic purposes so, this news is very encouraging to say the least - then again, I could always grow my hair longer which would leave only five feet to repair!
Anywho, I apologize for rambling too much on this.

Respectfully,
SSBN727 Run Silent... Run Deep but, not too DEEP!!!