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DARPA Sponsoring Limb Regeneration Research
fragmentate writes "Wired News is reporting: 'In response to the hundreds of soldiers coming home from war with missing arms or legs, Darpa is spending millions of dollars to help scientists learn how people might one day regenerate their own limbs. Prosthetics are getting better all the time, but they will never be as good as the limbs we were born with. So two teams of scientists at 10 institutions across the country are competing to regrow the first mammalian limb ... The researchers' first milestone is to generate a blastema — a mass of cells able to develop into various organs or body parts — in a mammal.' Apparently this is a relatively new area of research, even Wikipedia's stub on blastemas is very terse."
Wikipedia's stub. I get it. Hah.
Since this is Slashdot, which is not exactly known to be a bastion of maturity, I bet that Wikipedia won't be very terse for long...
(WARNING - SPOILERS)
When William Mandella lost his leg in an accident he was under the impression that he would simply be given an artificial one and would then be free to persue a semi-normal life. To his horror he discovers they'll simply grow him a new leg and chuck him right back in to active duty... :)
THE HONOUR OF THE KNIGHTS - CC Licensed Sci-Fi Novel
""Wired News is reporting: 'In response to the hundreds of soldiers coming home from war with missing arms or legs, Darpa is spending millions of dollars to help scientists learn how people might one day regenerate their own limbs [CC] [MD] [GC]. Prosthetics are getting better all the time, but they will never be as good as the limbs we were born with."
Stem cells!
Wasn't the Lizard created from a scientist who was trying to do this very thing?
Here's a radical idea (maybe too radical for DARPA) that just might work. How about we refrain from military conflicts unless they are absolutely, positively necessary? That is, instead of sending our young men and women off the Iraq based on faked intelligence and then trying to figure out how to improve the quality of their lives when they come back, why don't we just execute more care before sending them out in the first place? Less conflicts means less amputations.
Of course, Wikipedia stubs are the definitive indicator of a field of knowledge.
Moving on, though, I guess I'll have to mention how starfish do the whole regeneration thing. You know. And geckos, and other stuff like that. In fact, your own body can do it already---sorta kinda not really---in that a tumor or a wart is just a replication sequence gone awry. Interesting to see how this turns out. Can't imagine what the FDA will do with it if and when it's successful.
The heavens do not fall for such a trifle.
Why not? I see no good reason why competent engineering can't eventually beat a chunk of meat.
It's not like we were intelligently designed... we evolved. Evolution will tend to produce good solutions to problems, but it will hardly ever produce the best possible solution. Once we get nerve-circuit interfaces down, we should have no problem outengineering most of the human body.
-- The act of censorship is always worse than whatever is being censored. Always.
I think it would be more accurate to say Wikipedia's stub on blastemas is embryonic.
In response to the hundreds of soldiers coming home from war with missing arms or legs, Darpa is spending millions of dollars to help scientists learn how people might one day regenerate their own limbs.
You *know* the Army's thinking behind this is to regenerate their limbs so they can just send them back to war.
Push Button, Receive Bacon
so, say, if one hand is blown off, I still have a few more left, no need to rush to hospital. an extra head won't hurt either. (with a possibility of starring in Hitchhiker).
If they can give soldiers the ability to grow amputated limbs, any possibility this technology can be used to produce 100% real enlarged breasts? Forget silicone and saline implants, in ten years time we'll have women who can inject themselves with this serum and grow from a B-cup to DD. I imagine the government will find a way to outlaw that, too, just like they did for silicone "for the saftey of women".
as if a million stumpfuckers suddenly cried out in protest.
Eloi are stupid, throw morlocks at them!
This is one step closer to the invincible zombie army that the government is working on. Maybe it will help us defeat the robots in the future?
Why yes, my hat ismade out of tin. How did you know?
The real reason for this research is so we can torture 'insurgents' by cutting off their limbs as this won't be a permanent condition at some point.
Blade's or any other vampire's DNA... They regenerate limbs don't they?
The two groups are sharing $7.6 million in grants for a year to find a way to give humans salamander-like abilities.
Am I out of whack or it's $7.6m like peanuts for this kind of research? I'd guess any serious effort on that would need to be in the billions level, and that likely for many years.
Rome taught me patience and assiduous application to detail. Virtues which temper the boldness of great, general views.
Let's focus our efforts on something a little more important.
Thanks.
Robert Becker reported partly regenerating mammal limbs years ago. See http://www.newtreatments.org/doc.php/WisdomExperie nce/135
some more info for anyone interested:
r ative_me.html
Timelines for Manipulating and Greatly Enhancing Human Regeneration
http://www.fightaging.org/archives/000929.php
Transhumanism: Regenerative Medicine
http://digitalcrusader.ca/archives/2006/05/regene
augment your senses: http://sensebridge.net/
Dismissing prosthetics as being less than natural ignores that the technology is always improving. It's not that hard to envision a time when the prosthetic limb is better than the natural one. For example, at best, we'll be able to grow back a natural limb. If a prosthetic limb breaks, it will probably be a lot easier to replace. OTOH, it's reasonable to assume that a considerable fraction of people are going to want like replaced with like. Ie, they will often want a natural limb replaced by a natural one or an artificial one replaced by the same.
Not quite as good, but I just interviewed someone about new research into interfacing neurons with electronics that could lead to Luke Skywalker-like replacement limbs. Harvard researchers have figured out a way to directly read and write to a neuron with digital electronics.
let's just generate new limbs!
Our engineering arrogance is still no competition with the million-year-old blind watch maker. From nanotechnology, to junk DNA, dark matter, and artificial intelligence, we constantly overestimate our understanding. We will get there, but we don't even know what we don't know. I think we will be cribbing engineering notes from cell cultures for millennium to come and still have much left to learn from biology.
Medic: Sir, we're going to need to cut off your arms.
Homer: They'll grow back, right?
The researchers' first milestone is to generate a blastema -- a mass of cells able to develop into various organs or body parts -- in a mammal.
Cue out-of-control flesh monster, Akira-style.
Hunt your preferred prey at Aliens vs Predator MUD. Join the war at avpmud.com port 4000
>they certainly have plenty of Iraq war veterans to practice on, over 20,000 injured to date , 2700 dead and >counting
I rarely come across any detailed report of those injuries. Not all injuries are the same. And who considers two lost arms to be an equivalent disability to one lost leg, or even two legs? (I don't, but I get the impression it's not "socially correct" to say so.)
All we hear about is the aggregate number of casualties. Nothing to tell us what kind of injuries they represent. Some of those 20,000 might recover, and others will not, and there is a big difference between different injuries.
-fb Everything not expressly forbidden is now mandatory.
Look up 'charles becker', he did things like this in his research 20 years ago. Was regrowing rat legs right and left from what i remember.
And isnt a rat pretty close to a human? Thats what they keep saying anyway.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
6 million dollar man
Inspector Gadget
Luke Skywalker
Fake limbs can resist bullets. They can have powerful weapons and other tools. If you buy the Dr. Strangelove model, you get to blame the arm's buggy software when it grabs a woman's butt.
IIRC, it makes a good story anyway, the use of pinning etc was pioneered by military medics as a way to quickly heal limbs and recycle soldiers faster. Previous to that, an "accidentally" damaged leg was a ticket back to home comforts and safety.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
All we hear about is the aggregate number of casualties.
One death is a tragedy; a million is a statistic. -Joseph Stalin.
KFG
I know that this has already been beaten to death, but, for instance, Wikipedia's stub on Radiometry, one of the oldest fields in optics, is also rather terse--and that's the entry for an _entire field in optics._
It DOES, I might add, as a saving grace contain the most important radiometric lesson that anyone in the sciences needs to learn: if you say the word "intensity," you probably ACTUALLY mean irradiance. This bothers optics folks to NO END.
A member of each tem gets one limb sawn off and the first one to regrow it to appropriate size wins the prize!
"Enjoy what you're doing! If it becomes drudgery, you're doing it wrong!" - Jim Butterfield
I think they need to narrow it down a little - you know, focus on more important things like testicles. Apparently, Dell is more or a threat to our collective biology than the Iraq war. You can't ignore this sort of thing when you go sci-fi like this.
Limbs are great, but some limbs are are more important than others. Priorities, people.
-sorry
Immortality may be just not that far off, but all that would lead to is an increase in over population and wealth stratifacation. I'm all for improving the quality of life for amputees but I think a century or so is long enough for any one person.
We are all just people.
Does this help if you're legless?
(yes, it's late here - as a matter of fact, it's so late it's early)
........na its to easy
If you could reason with religious people, there would be no religious people
... or maybe only PeaceCorp veterans ...
We are all just people.
If artificial limbs are improving, how long you bet before we see folk walking around with just pure metalic limbs for the cool factor.
Full Metal Alchemist anyone?
now he wont have to look down and see another mans penis lol
-Noc
Perkins: Bitten sir. During the night.
Ainsworth: Hm. Whole leg gone eh?
Perkins: Yes.
[As they talk, the din of battle continues outside. Screams of dying men, crackling of tents set on fire.]
Ainsworth: How's it feel?
Perkins: Stings a bit.
Ainsworth: Mmm. Well it would, wouldn't it. That's quite a bite you've got there you know.
Perkins: Yes, real beauty isn't it?
All: Yes.
Ainsworth: Any idea how it happened?
Perkins: None at all. Complete mystery to me. Woke up just now... one sock too many.
Pakenham-Walsh: You must have a hell of a hole in your net.
Ainsworth: Hm. We've sent for the doctor.
Perkins: Ooh, hardly worth it, is it?
Ainsworth: Oh yes... better safe than sorry.
Pakenham-Walsh: Yes, good Lord, look at this.
[He indicates a gigantic hole in the mosquito net.]
Ainsworth: By jove, that's enormous.
Pakenham-Walsh: You don't think it'll come back, do you?
Ainsworth: For more, you mean?
Pakenham-Walsh: Yes.
Ainsworth: You're right. We'd better get this stitched.
Pakenham-Walsh: Right.
Ainsworth: Hallo Doc.
Livingstone: [entering the tent with Chadwick] Morning. I came as fast as I could. Is something up?
Ainsworth: Yes, during the night old Perkins had his leg bitten sort of... off.
Livingstone: Ah hah!? Been in the wars have we?
Perkins: Yes.
Livingstone: Any headache, bowels all right? Well, let's have a look at this one leg of yours then. [Looks around under sheet] Yes... yes... yes... yes... yes... yes... well, this is nothing to worry about.
Perkins: Oh good.
Livingstone: There's a lot of it about, probably a virus, keep warm, plenty of rest, and if you're playing football or anything try and favour the other leg.
Perkins: Oh right ho.
Livingstone: Be as right as rain in a couple of days.
Perkins: Thanks for the reassurance, doc.
Livingstone: Not at all, that's what I'm here for. Any other problems I can reassure you about?
Perkins: No I'm fine.
Livingstone: Jolly good. Well, must be off.
Perkins: So it'll just grow back then, will it?
you had me at #!
You probably want to address Madison or Jefferson, not Washington.
DARPA is spending MILLIONS to help researchers re-grow limbs. Try that again. They're spending MILLIONS (which is what you need for a fair retirement) to advance the RE-GROWTH OF A HUMAN LIMB. In other news, I'm donating $12.32 towards the advancement of Sentinent AI. By my estimates, my $12 will yield results in 2 or 3 hundred years. Shortly thereafter my AIbot will then invent a way to regrow human limbs, beating the underfunded DARPA project by 3 or 4 hundred years.
The vast majority of amputations happen because of auto crashes on the highway. But nobody likes to think about highway accidents (easier to pretend they don't happen). Plus there's a huge amount of money in the defense budget just waiting to be given out.
Or perhaps the nation has a much greater duty to help young men and women who have volunteered to put their lives on the line to defend us, and who have lost a limb in the process.
It's not quite clear the nation owes the same consideration to J. Random Citizen who gets himself racked up on the highway, say, by drinking and driving, or even through plain bad luck.
This is the sort of science that can be done without huge capital costs. A few million dollars will go a long way when spent on salaries and salamanders.
what the subject said.
The serious issue your joke illuminates is the possibility of people growing a clone for the purpose of "spare parts." No risk of rejection when you do the transplantation, see?
I read in the New Scientist (around March) about some research into implants that allow scientists to provide basic stimulus to mammalian brains and get some feedback too. They mentioned DARPA were experimenting with implants in sharks brains that could allow them to steer them with an eventual view to using them for stealthy underwater spying (sorry, no lasers). The article also mentioned that some of that research would have implications in the field of prosthetics as it has to do with interfaces between electronics and nerves.
If the Republicans stay in control of congress come November,I hope DARPA can figure out how to grow a new moral reputation for the USA.
And maybe a new Constitution, because the one we started with has been battered badly by 6 years of the Bush Administration.
Can you believe we're even discussing torture, secret prisons, domestic wiretapping?
Yeah, they better learn how to grow a new conscience for the great Nation.
You are welcome on my lawn.
The traditional solution is to grow completely new soldiers as gun fodder - these are generally called babies. I don't see the strategic advantage in growing only partial soldiers, unless one can do it very quickly and get say a 14 day turn around on a limb, which could be better than the current 18 year production cycle...
Oh well, what the hell...
Now finally, we can name the effect used in anime, when they do near-instant limb regeneration. You know what I'm talking about ... that bubbly organic extrusion that happens when chopped off limbs are regenerated. This shall now be called a "Blastema". Also used when organic bodies are psychically mutated, as in Akira.
Too Many Men and Women coming back missing legs, arms, eyes, etc...
Fix it already.
Why not just create clones.
When you need a body part just tell them they are going to 'America'.
Only if he's a lawyer.
In the same vein, all engineers are nerds who can't get a date. All designers are homosexuals. All male programmers are socially inept, and there are no female programmers. All doctors have a God Complex. All firefighters, of course, are heroes ;-) .
Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
"You know, it's a number."
- White House spokesman Tony Snow, in response to a question about the President's reaction to 2500 troop deaths in Iraq.
-fb Everything not expressly forbidden is now mandatory.
Here's an article with better details, particularly the science teams.
Move along, nothing to see here....
Complete Bull Shit.
The Body Electric, Robert O. Becker, copyrighted 1985.
Only his tendency toward a dazed stupor prevented him from screaming aloud.
DARPA currently has a program called "Revolutionizing Prosthetics" http://www.darpa.mil/dso/thrust/biosci/revprost.ht m which is intended to create a brain machine interface to a prosthetic limb controllable on 23 different axes simultaneously with both efferent and afferent information to and from the limb to the brain (tactile sensation) all by 2010.
Dont fuck with it unless you can fix it
i'm so tired of everyone casting a good light on GWB and his stupid, idiotic war to raise profits for the oil companies and destabilize the globe, bringing even greater profits for arms dealers. a lot more people are getting messed up in this iraq conflict, so we need to be vigilant and make sure we recognize that a lot more people than ever before are coming back wounded and traumatized for life all for a big freakin' WMD lie.
Remember kids, if you're not paying for the service, YOU ARE THE PRODUCT THAT IS BEING SOLD.
I heard somewhere that frogs can regenerate limbs.
Prosthetics are getting better all the time, but they will never be as good as the limbs we were born with.
This is an arbitrary affirmation. The cyberpunk geek in me firmly disagrees.
The Wise adapts himself to the world. The Fool adapts the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the Fool.
Maybe, only maybe... this could be a good use for stem cell research ? And public funding ?
The Wise adapts himself to the world. The Fool adapts the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the Fool.
Nice idea. Although the main problem is the politicians that send soldiers to pointless wars in the first place. Once the research is complete, I would suggest we just chop off the heads of the current government. The heads that regrow may make better decisions.
My wife had a boating accident and lost a large portion of her right thumb. As she is right handed, this is even more of an issue.
About a year later she finally got her prosthetic through the NHS, and while it's functional, it's visibly unattractive. She prefers to struggle without the thumb rather than have the extension on. People seem to notice the prosthetic more than they do the abscence of her thumb.
On a side note, she would pay very good money for someone who built a console controller with the buttons on the left and the analog stick on the right!
When I was in High School I remember being deeply impressed by something Norbert Weiner (originator of the term "Cybernetics") said, which was more or less that for the cost of another Manhattan Project we could give soldiers who had lost limbs in war better arms and legs than they were born with. Bernard Wolfe Took this idea and ran with it in the novel "Limbo", which is probably out of print but a great read if you can find it. Sounds like this is an idea that we've pretty much given up on.
Zombie army? Forget that. The politicians are all hankering for zombie voters.
"want part of their body replaced with robotics if they could have the option of a new, real limb."
In some cases, if you ask the significant other, they like the robotic replacement better than the original one... but only for injuries lower than the waist, but higher than the thigh, on the front.
I only look human.
My mother is a halfling and my dad is an ogre, so that makes me an Ogreling
... cuz we don't want to save our injured solidiers, who fought for our freedom, with dead babies!
An independent study has concluded that another method has an even greater and proactive effect:
Peace.