Mini human brains are being grown in labs all over the world. I'm going to let you in on a secret. Every cell in your body has the potential to get smarter. I don't mean this metaphorically, or in a "body keeps the score" kind of way. I mean that if lab-coated biologists took a sample of your skin and very carefully manipulated the cells inside it, they could actually make a brain. They do it all the time. Not a brain as complex as the one behind your eyes, of course, but a glob of gray matter nonetheless, with a few-million-odd neurons that can send and receive electrical signals. Kept at a womblike 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit for eight months, they'll produce repetitive oscillations-- --nearly indistinguishable from those made by a premature baby. In cell culture labs around the world, human brain organoids live out their short lives as neural guinea pigs, testing the effects of diseases, toxins, and new pharmaceuticals. But they may soon be on to more glamorous pursuits. At the University of San Diego, organoids are guiding spidery robots through mazes and taking hero doses of psychedelics.

Pacific Grove, California--Pop a few human stem cells into culture, provide the right molecular signals, and before long a mock cerebral cortex or a cerebellum knockoff could be floating in the medium. These neural, or brain, organoids, typically just a few millimeters across, are not "brains in a dish," as some journalists have described them. But they are becoming ever more sophisticated and true to life, capturing more of the brain's cellular and structural intricacy. "It's surprising how far this [area] has advanced in the last year," says John Evans, a sociologist at the University of California San Diego who follows the research and public opinions on it. That progress has allowed researchers to delve deeper into how the human brain develops, functions, and goes awry in diseases, but it has also sharpened ethical questions.

This replica of the body's blood factory is made entirely with human cells. Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. Without even thinking about it, the bone marrow in your body is churning out billions of cells every single day. Bone marrow is our body's strong and silent "blood factory," working hard in the background while heart pumps and brain controls. The spongy marrow really gets attention during a blood cancer diagnosis or when this crucial system stops working properly.

It may have its roots in science fiction, but a small number of researchers are making real progress trying to create computers out of living cells. Welcome to the weird world of biocomputing. Among those leading the way are a group of scientists in Switzerland, who I went to meet. One day, they hope we could see data centres full of living servers which replicate aspects of how artificial intelligence (AI) learns - and could use a fraction of the energy of current methods. That is the vision of Dr Fred Jordan, co-founder of the FinalSpark lab I visited.

Understanding crucial crop's genes can help feed a hungry world. Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. Despite the 15 billion bushels grown in the United States last year alone, we still don't know much about corn's stem cells . That may seem like a minor issue, but these cells play a huge role dictating the important plant's growth, health, and hardiness . Identifying the specific genes responsible for these and other factors could help agricultural scientists craft more robust crops--a vital need in the face of food insecurity and climate change.

Gene-edited pancreatic cells have been transplanted into a patient with type 1 diabetes for the first time. They produced insulin for months without the patient needing to take immunosuppressants. All products featured on WIRED are independently selected by our editors. However, we may receive compensation from retailers and/or from purchases of products through these links. Crispr gene-editing technology has demonstrated its revolutionary potential in recent years: It has been used to treat rare diseases, to adapt crops to withstand the extremes of climate change, or even to change the color of a spider's web.

Ian Burkhart was on holiday with friends in 2010 when his life changed forever. He dived into shallow water and broke his neck, leaving him paralysed from the shoulders down at the age of 19. "At that point, I was getting assistance with everything," he says, "even being able to scratch an itch on my forehead." A few years later, Burkhart got an experimental brain implant that rerouted nerve impulses around his broken spinal cord to the muscles of his arm. It took time, but eventually he was able to use his hands and arms again – and even play the video game Guitar Hero.

Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. Your body is constantly generating new cells. In your digestive tract, the colon's lining turns over every five to seven days. Your red blood cells replace themselves every few weeks, skin cells about once a month. But certain organs are a big exception.

A Frankenstein's lab for growing'spare' human bodies sounds like something ripped straight from an episode of Black Mirror. But scientists really want to make this gruesome concept a reality. In an article published in the MIT Technology Review, three Stanford University scientists argue that so-called'bodyoids' could'revolutionise' medicine. Bodyoids would be physiologically identical to a normal human but engineered not to have consciousness or experience pain, they write. The researchers argue that modern medical science is being held back by a severe shortage of'ethically sourced human bodies'.

This imbalance between supply and demand is the underlying cause of the organ shortage crisis, with more than 100,000 patients currently waiting for a solid organ transplant in the US alone. It also forces us to rely heavily on animals in medical research, a practice that can't replicate major aspects of human physiology and makes it necessary to inflict harm on sentient creatures. In addition, the safety and efficacy of any experimental drug must still be confirmed in clinical trials on living human bodies. These costly trials risk harm to patients, can take a decade or longer to complete, and make it through to approval less than 15% of the time. There might be a way to get out of this moral and scientific deadlock.