Could we print body parts?

Don't get too excited... HP doesn't make bioprinters. This picture is the product of an artist's imagination.

One of the fascinating things about science is how, despite the fact that the public sees scientists as a kind of united force, two respected experts can often hold completely opposing views. Take bioprinting, for example. This is a futuristic technology that has received millions of pounds of research funding in the hope that we will one day be able to print organs, bone and living tissue in the same way that we print fancy plastic objects with 3D printers. I recorded a feature for BBC Click (out this week, listen here) recently for which I interviewed two experts about it. One was from Imperial College London and the other from University College London. The first believed that we are only a decade away from printing living organs, while the second thought it was a near-impossible challenge that may never happen.

There's no denying that bioprinting is an attractive dream. Just imagine all the transplant patients who would be able to roll into surgery and have an organ printed out for them, tailored to their bodies and made using their cultured cells. In reality, though, tissue engineering hasn't been able to grow so much as an ear (you may remember that the famous Vacanti mouse with a living ear growing on its back was really just a piece of ear-shaped cartilage made using a mould). American doctor, Anthony Atala, did manage to reconstruct human bladders about five years ago, but these were built around artificial scaffolds.

Then again, there are lots of technologies around today that people believed would never exist. So if you'd like to form your own opinion on bioprinting, tune into Click on the BBC World Service tonight or listen again online.