Body Parts on a Chip http://www.ted.com/talks/geraldine_hamilton_body_parts_on_a_chip.html So a team from Wyss Insititute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard was able to accurately model a body system in the size of a computer chip in order to test new cures for diseases. Why is this important?
This will increase the possibility of new, workable cures for diseases because this actually models the mechanical forces present in the body during breathing and other functions. Less time wasted testing for cures.
This bypasses all ethical concerns for animal testing and any related to stem cell testing.
A cure can be made specific to /your/ body type, all with just an almost negligible amount of organ/body part to observe in these chips. So there are no "cures with a few exceptions to special cases" because they will be able to see exactly how a cure reacts to YOUR body.
They will be able to test a cure without it affecting your overall health, because they're testing it outside of your body. No more trial and error testing, which, as I saw in my time at MD Anderson, can really take the life--literally--out of some people.
CALM DOWN, TECHNO/SCIENCE-PHOBES: This method WILL NOT be used to recreate an entire human. It can sustain a part of your body away from you, yes, but not to the point where computer chips can be assembled to form a fully functioning person.
And for someone like me who is interested in both chemical and nano-electrical/computer engineering and is a total art geek (I mean, seriously: Look at it. It's so pretty), this is just the bee's knees.