XenotransplantationEven the name sounds sci-fi. Xenotransplantation is the process of taking organs from donor animals, and transplanting them to humans. It hasn't been successful in the past, but genetic engineering just might make it work.The idea isn't

Even the name sounds sci-fi. Xenotransplantation is the process of taking organs from donor animals, and transplanting them to humans. It hasn't been successful in the past, but genetic engineering just might make it work.

The idea isn't a new one. Some of the first known operations were actually performed all the way back in 1906. French surgeon Mathieu Jaboulay implanted a pig's kidney into one woman, and a goat's liver into another. Both patients died.

Fast-forward to a world famous case. In 1984 a team of surgeons implanted a baboon heart into an infant in desperate nee...