I don't recall seeing this mentioned previously here, but I've just become aware of the work of Oran Catts and SymbioticA, including the Tissue Culture and Art Project. Catts describes himself as a "tissue engineering artist" who has been a Research Fellow at Harvard Medical School's Tissue Engineering and Organ Fabrication Laboratory and now works at the University of Western Australia. The Tissue Culture and Art Project's web site is at http://www.tca.uwa.edu.au/index.html.
One of their projects was the making of this tiny "victimless leather" coat grown from immortalized mouse stem cells. The project's aims are discussed here.
The potential implications of such things are staggering. Clearly such a coat could fit like a second skin. But, one asks, can they do a glen check with a lilac overplaid?
