Human Limb Regeneration a Possibility?

SablKnight writes "This NY Times article (free reg. req.) says maybe. Apparently research is being done in parallel with the more controversial stem cell implantation to attempt to regenerate missing parts in humans. Though this has been a subject of mild interest for centuries, serious research started much more recently, when an experiment involving mice suffered a setback. 'A few years ago, Dr. Ellen Heber-Katz, an immunologist at the Wistar Institute in Philadelphia, was conducting an experiment with those mice, which develop a disease similar to lupus. As is common, Dr. Heber-Katz punched a pattern of holes in each mouse's ear to so she could tell which mouse was which. Three weeks later, she said, when she checked on the experiment, 'there were no ear holes.'' A quick google search reveals similar stories about Dr. Heber-Katz' research in other publications, such as the Science Daily and Nature."

Tomorrows headlines...

[Chexsum]

Heartless man grows a heart!
Brainless child grows a brain!
Stomachless woman grows an appetite!?!

Regeneration could be bad

[pandrew]

Regeneration has been tried before,

remember in spiderman? doctor with no arm uses techniques of regeneration only to backfire and he becomes a mean lizard man?!?

i say leave well enough alone

misplaced mice?

[iggymanz]

And in a related story, Dr. Futzup, who works in a room adjacent to Dr. Ellen Heber-Katz, was feeding Nutrasweet to a group of mice for 3 weeks, and one morning when his lab assistant brought in the cage he noticed "three holes had appeared in all their ears!". Also, he noted "the cage had changed color!"