From: glen mccready 
  To: Dead Beef <0xdeadbeef@substance.abuse.blackdown.org>
Date: Mon, 24 Jul 1995 13:52:21 -0400

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 24 Jul 1995 08:05:02 -0400
From: Keith Bostic <bostic@CS.Berkeley.EDU>
To: /dev/null@python.bostic.com
Subject: But how does it compare to astro-turf?

Forwarded-by: Chris Torek <torek@bsdi.com>

Excerpted from Science News, 8 July 1995, Vol. 148 No 2.

There's a tremendous need out there for transplantable tissues
and organs," says Gail K. Naughton, chief scientist for Advanced
Tissue Sciences in La Jolla, Calif. ...

To generate enough [skin] tissue to treat several hundred thousand
people a year, the researchers have filled stacks of bioreactors
and tissue banks.  The seed cells for the skin grafts come from
discarded foreskins following "routine circumcisions," Naughton
says.  In the laboratory, those hearty infant tissues grow readily
into patches.

How much skin have they harvested?

"About 250,000 square feet," says Naughton.  "That's roughly
the equivalent of six football fields.

"I know," she hastens to add.  "We've heard all the jokes."