Scientists ID Gene That Allows the Growth of a New Head

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/c1b307c70818.jpg[/atsimg]

British scientists have identified the "smed-prop" genes that allow Planarian flatworms to regenerate any part of their body, including heads and brains, after an injury. Next step: regrowing human heads.

The genes are contained in stem cells that all of the worms, even adults, have. And by figuring out how they're able to regenerate body parts, they hope to parlay that into figuring out how to make the same sort of thing happen in humans.

The doc suggests that it may be possible in future to simply grow new organs and limbs for injuried or sick humans - even, perhaps, to repair their damaged brain in situ. This would be preferable to removing a duff brain and growing a new one, as happens when a planarian worm's head is cut off.

"If we know what is happening when tissues are regenerated under normal circumstances, we can begin to formulate how to replace damaged and diseased organs, tissues and cells in an organised and safe way following an injury caused by trauma or disease. This would be desirable for treating Alzheimer's disease, for example," says Aboobaker.

All I know is that I'll feel a lot better about the future if I know I'll be able to regrow my brain if I mess it up somehow. So keep at it, scientists! And I'll keep killing my brain with booze and drugs knowing that you've got my back. [The Register via Slashdot]

Source

"Thinks about the movie Army Of Darkness" Yeeeeahhh I don't think a second head would turn out to be too swell.

Interesting nonetheless.

[edit on 27-4-2010 by Crossfate]

Hope scientists be able to duplicate or regrow body organs soon.

I'm sure men will appreciate another set of genital so they won't get fuse out too quickly.




[edit on 4 27 2010 by wisdomnotemotion]

Maybe theyll get a way to grow a chainsaw out of your hand. You would have to re-learn everything you ever knew though, if you wished to grow a new head. I don't see how you would be able to re-grow memory encoding. Still, pretty groundbreaking stuff. I'm interested in the reprocussions of this science being perfected. Would people lose all fear of death? or at the very least maiming? If you knew no matter how bad you damaged your body, you could always get taken to a clinic and have it grown back, or if the gene (probably with nanobot augmentation) were already active in you you could just grow it yourself.

John Titor predicted this. I don't believe he was a genuine time traveller but none the less he did predict this, some people might find that interesting.

I suppose this is very good news but if we somehow grew another head on a human body like the turtle above would the new head have it's own personality? would it be able to communicate non verbally with the original head? I wonder if one head could be a muslim and the other a christian? or have different tastes in food and music? would two heads and two brains mean two souls? would somebody with two heads be allowed two wives? would the two heads fight for control of the body like the two headed snake gthat killed itself fighting over food?

what if control of the body switched between the two heads and one of them commited a serious crime?

Originally posted by wisdomnotemotion
Hope scientists be able to duplicate or regrow body organs soon.

I'm sure men will appreciate another set of genital so they won't get fuse out too quickly.
[edit on 4 27 2010 by wisdomnotemotion]

Well. I've always heard that two heads are better than one.

I said this many times before.

Preserve nature's designs, there's some cool stuff out there. The best technologies always come from nature.

How would that even work on a human? Or for that matter, how does it work on that little turtle?

Are there two stomachs? or one and the esophagus just forks into two?

I remember seeing a two headed snake on animal planet. They were talking about how the two heads seem to disagree on things and try to go different directions sometimes, so i guess its possible that one head could fire a gun and murder someone but the other head be innocent.

Actually, the other head would probably be guilty of aiding and abetting. Or conspiracy, or something like that, haha.

I guess if one head commits a serious crime they couldnt justify locking the other head up, so the only fair solution i can think of is to kill the guilty head. Once its dead you may as well lob it off and let the other head have a sorta-normal body.

What if one brain was female and one was male? What would the body be? that would pose problems id think.

I have so many questions...

We should make a two headed human just to answer all these questions.

reply to post by Gamecock


It would probably work something like this:



That is, if a person actually chose to have two heads.

Originally posted by Arkady
John Titor predicted this. I don't believe he was a genuine time traveller but none the less he did predict this, some people might find that interesting.

Do you have a link to where he predicted this? Thanks.