How To Grow a Head

Taco Cowboy writes "British scientists have found a mechanism within our gene sequence that allows the growing of a new head — with brains, etc. The gene is tentatively known as smed-prep, and the information contained in smed-prep also makes the new cells appear in the right place and organise themselves into working structures."

Yes but can they do it without copying Migranes?

[hAckz0r]

They could make a fortune on that technology, but the problem is how to transition to the new one gracefully?

Grow parts of fingers?

[gTsiros]

I lost the last phalanx (joint including) of my right middle and right ring fingers.
I am impatiently waiting for the tech to get here so i can get my fingers back...

Re:Oh Sure

[Anonymous Coward]

Almost made the mistake of thinking that quote was from Super-Scientist Dr. Venture, shame on me for not remembering every single thing the Professor ever said.

for *planaria* not humans

[capoccia]

unless you belong to Planariidae, you don't have much hope of this benefiting you.

Re:What???

[Kell Bengal]

Whether it's nature or nurture that's at fault, the ignorant are products of their parents/culture. If you're born in county, odds are you're going to grow up to be ignorant without any scope for choice in the matter. Certainly, some people by change have the opportunity to exercise the choice to stop being ignorant, but to do so they must have already started down that path somewhat. After all, the beginning of wisdom is to realise that you know nothing.

I don't blame the stupid and ignorant for being stupid or ignorant. I blame the smart people in charge of media and education who deny them the opportunity to be otherwise.

Re:Is it just me or....

[Wrexs0ul]

Long term benefits would be regrowing parts of the head, supposedly including areas of the brain you'd lose from trauma.

Your point brings-up a good question though: how much of your brain can you replace before you're no-longer you?

Spiritual arguments aside, of course.

-Matt

getting ahead of myself

[NicknamesAreStupid]

I've been waiting for this news, as you might tell from my post, I need another head. As for "two heads are better than one," there is a wonderful article about a truly remarkable person(s) in Minnesota with two heads that is doing splendidly (metabolically) and may redefine our stereotypes of a 'person'. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abigail_and_Brittany_Hensel [wikipedia.org]. Actually, she/they have two heads, spinal chords, hearts, and stomachs. They raise all kinds of wonderful social issues regarding privacy, marriage, procreation, and the law. For example, what is she/they ran for President? Would we have a leader that could speak to both sides of the aisle at once? Argue both sides at once? Veto and pass a bill at the same time? Be for and against every controversial subject? My god, Ms. Hensel(s) may be the PERFECT POLITICIAN! Two head are better than one, politically speaking.

Re:Grow parts of fingers?

[holmstar]

Saw a documentary once where a guy who had lost a good half inch off the end of his finger and managed to regrow it, complete with fingerprints, by keeping it moist, and coating it with powdered "scaffold" protein every day. Apparently the presence of the scaffold protein triggered the stem cells that were present to start regrowing the lost tissue. The guy got the treatment idea from a friend who was studying tissue regeneration in amphibians.

Re:Grow parts of fingers?

[Polo]

Check this out:

http://health.howstuffworks.com/extracellular-matrix.htm [howstuffworks.com]

but wikipedia says it might be unremarkable:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regeneration_(biology) [wikipedia.org]