Scientists Discover New Clues To Regeneration: How Flatworms Regrow Heads 76
An anonymous reader writes "Regeneration is one of the most useful skills that an organism can possess. Lizards can regrow their tails and starfish can regrow and entire part of themselves if they're cut to pieces. Yet scientists have long wondered why some creatures possess this ability while others don't. That's why they decided to examine the process of regeneration, looking at the masters of this particular adaptation: flatworms."
Re: Meanwhile, Slashdot ters Still Unsure How to S (Score:1)
That's grammar; not spelling.
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Not if the intention was to write "..regrow an entire...". A typo that comes out as a real word that makes the grammar wrong is still a typo ( a spelling error).
If you're going to be a Grammar Nazi on a Spelling Nazi's post, you should at least make sure that you're right.
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Not if the intention was to write "..regrow an entire...". A typo that comes out as a real word that makes the grammar wrong is still a typo ( a spelling error).
Heh. Since everyone is being pedantic today... not all typos are spelling errors. :p
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That's grammar; not spelling.
Grammar is spelling at the sentence level.
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Also, from TFA:
No, I really don't think you get 40,000 worms.
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"If you were granted an uninterrupted spree of ten thousand days of posts correcting English usage on slashdot, do you imagine that on day ten thousand and one there would be even one less mistake then when you began?"
It's 'than', not 'then'.
uh huh (Score:4, Funny)
Matt Smith is pleased.
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Matt Smith is pleased.
And so is Leonard Betts.
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His hair was going to grow back anyway...
"Regeneration is one of the most useful skills" (Score:3)
really? Cool, certainly, but it seems there hasn't been a need to evolve the skill in many species.
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So that's the logic behind Highlander...
they don't Regeneration hand or other parts no hea (Score:2)
they don't Regeneration hand or other parts no heads as well.
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I think he just picked a poor way of saying "if it was THAT useful, then we'd see regeneration-capable species outsurviving non-capable species". Since we don't see regeneration-capable species drastically outperforming non-capable species in the survival game, then it suggests that regeneration isn't the survival superpower that Wolverine would have us believe.
Or, as you said, he could just be anthropomorphizing evolution. Evolution hates when you do that.
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Some studies suggest that lobsters are effectively immortal and just keep growing larger and larger until they're killed by disease or predators, but generally never die of simple old age.
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Slightly of topic, but since you mentioned Wolverine.
I think death (old age) is a useful trait to have (most species have it, from a evolution stand point). It allows for change as new generations come in. If you never died there would be no intensive for reproduction, your offspring would simply consume your resources.
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I think in order for a species of individuals that regenerate to successfully compe
The wraith can regeneration real fast (Score:2)
if they just fed on something.
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cause organisms to react to factors
All in all good, but this one set of words is incorrect. The organisms do not react at all. They vary and if selective pressure is high (ie a high mortality rate), then the species features will be redefined by the survivors. If aliens came to earth and decided to kill everyone except those with 6 fingers on their hands the human race would have 6 fingers on their hands.
Do it yourself experiment:
Take 100 dogs. Get them to stand on their back legs. Take the 10 that stand the longest. Breed them unt
Evolution & scarring (Score:5, Interesting)
Actually, it's more like the skill was lost in favor of one that was considered far more useful for survival -- inflammation and scarring.
Scarring stops bleeding and infection far faster than regeneration can and is a vital advantage in quick and dirty wound recovery. Scarring comes about because of a mutation that allows collagen to cross-link and build quicker scaffolding to seal the wound, but it comes at the cost of not being able to regrow tissues in the now "paved over" area. In the wild, this gave our distant mammalian ancestors the valuable ability to just kind of "write-off" the area and get up and going as fast as possible and avoid being preyed upon in a moment of weakness.
We may dismiss scarring today as ugly and wasteful of an opportunity to be made whole again, but without it, we probably wouldn't exist today.
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"Scarring is OP!"
(Sometimes I think I may have liked being a teacher.)
(Sometimes I think how wonderful would school have been if my teacher had explained the world instead of just showing it.)
Paywall ugh (Score:5, Insightful)
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which most of the time are funded by tax dollars, at least in part.
which is the "real" starfish (Score:3, Interesting)
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Re:which is the "real" starfish (Score:5, Insightful)
I wonder if any of the regenerated worms maintain the learned behavior.
Yes, they can [io9.com].
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An old thought experiment, I've heard it most repeated with cars, as well as by George Carlin. If you have a car and you replace a bolt, is it still the same car? Most people would say yes. What if you replaced another bolt? Most would still say yes. What if you replace every single part, one at a time? What if you then took all of those original parts and reassembled them into a new car. Which is the original?
Personally, I'd say none of your starfish are the "original" unless there's a core piece that you
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The original conception was not cars, but the Ship of Theseus. [wikipedia.org]
It's mostly about how we define identity and doesn't really have an answer.
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The original conception was not cars, but the Ship of Theseus. [wikipedia.org]
It's mostly about how we define identity and doesn't really have an answer.
It has an answer, just not one most people are looking for. If you want to know which ship is Theseus' ship, go ask the Athenian Port Authority. Property is a legal concept, and they're the authorities -- they can give you the definitive answer, and can't possibly be wrong, because they determine the right answer by virtue of their authority and what it means for it to be "his" ship.
(Despite what it looks like, this is not actually dodging the question. Rather, it's making a point about it. Property is
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Suppose you could cut a starfish into 5 segments, and they could each regenerate the missing 4. Which is the real one?
Huh? They're all real. You don't end up with one real and four imaginary starfish.
How much of a body can one replace before it's a different body?
Your body is different today than it was yesterday. Life is change...
Flatworms? (Score:3)
Please. Flatworms are great but plants.... plants are the champions here. Cut them off at the base, and they regrow from their roots. Cut off a branch and keep it from drying out, and it will regrow roots. Cut off leaves, it grows more, cut branches, it grows more.
Cut a flatworm up, you get more of the same. Cut a plant, and it will not just regrow....it will actually grow more limbs than you cut off. Wake me up when you cut a lizards tail off and he grows 6 more tails in response.
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The difference is whether we can apply it to us. Flatworms are at least in the animalia kingdom, so it's a big step closer to being useful for humans compared to plantae.
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Regeneration was found in some mice last year. Mammals is an even closer subgroup.
6 more tails (Score:2)
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Wake me up when you cut a lizards tail off and he grows 6 more tails in response.
I've heard of one where if you cut off its head, another two would grow in its place.
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"Cut a flatworm up, you get more of the same. Cut a plant, and it will not just regrow....it will actually grow more limbs than you cut off."
That's exactly the reason, why it was switched off in higher organisms, they can't handle the extra limbs.
New head (Score:5, Funny)
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Useful for kaiju (Score:1)
Reminds me of a starfish story (Score:2)
What a way to cure a hangover (Score:3)
Cut off your head & grow a new one. Cool!
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Exactly what defines the "self" vs. the "piece"?
You do.
If you have a way to keep the piece alive, can it become a new self?
In the same sense that any bit of everything can itself be considered its self, sure.
Excellent... (Score:2)
Hell, just transplant my head (Score:1)
I want new feet. I want a new right arm. I want a new penis. I want new teeth.
Not necessarily in that order.
helps out the BBC (Score:2)
So this gets around the 12 regeneration limit for Time Lords?
John Hurt is not going to be the last Doctor