Re: have scienetist attempted to grow an ear out of a rats back more than once?

Well Jordan scientists have been growing ears out of rats backs for a 
while now!
 
It seems the technique was pioneered by a scientist and plastic surgeon 
named Dr. Charles Vacanti out of the University of Massachusetts.  
Typically the ears are grown on the animals as replacements for parts a 
human may have lost.  In essence, if you lost an ear or got your nose 
really banged up, you could have a new one grown on a rat or mouse and 
attached to you to fix the damage!
  http://www.kidzworld.com/site/p1219.htm  This link has some more 
information about the process as well as a pretty cool picture of an ear 
on a mouse's back!  You can read even more about it here  http://www.pub.umich.edu/daily/1995/10-25-95/news/Mouse-Ear.html and 
finally here's a great article about growing new tissues for a person 
with more pictures of ears on rats backs.   http://www.pbs.org/saf/1107/features/body.htm  Dr. Vacanti talks about 
the future of this feild in that article as well.

Dr. Charles Vacanti also is working on other aspects of wound healing and 
nerve regeneration.  Most of this stuff is still just in development but 
it could mean someday we'll have geat tools to heal people!
 
That and a rat with an ear on its back just looks cool in a creepy way.
 

 
In summary, there are a few of these critters out there but not many.  
The technology is new, but it potentially is a great way to help people 
heal.
 
Hope this helps!!
 
--->Erik