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DARPA Sponsoring Limb Regeneration Research

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the regrow-the-ungrowable dept.

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."

12 of 221 comments (clear)

  1. Stub. by Wordsmith · · Score: 4, Funny

    Wikipedia's stub. I get it. Hah.

    1. Re:Stub. by Darkman,+Walkin+Dude · · Score: 4, Funny

      Jokes aside, if they can regenerate limbs, surely its just a hop skip and a jump to regenerate organs? If we can do that, immortality is just around the corner...

      --
      What he can't kill, he has sex on. Trent.
  2. Re:Wikipedia by iggymanz · · Score: 2, Funny

    it's the spammers I fear: get your Penis Enlargement Blastima now!

  3. Re:Wikipedia by nametaken · · Score: 2, Funny

    Funny, that was my thought, except I had a bit more optimistic expectation. I was hoping that it would get filled out in record time with quality info. :)

  4. Wikipedia's stub on blastemas is very terse by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    I think it would be more accurate to say Wikipedia's stub on blastemas is embryonic.

  5. can we grow some extra limbs in advance? by porky_pig_jr · · Score: 3, Funny

    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).

  6. I sense a disturbance in the Force by GungaDan · · Score: 3, Funny

    as if a million stumpfuckers suddenly cried out in protest.

    --
    Eloi are stupid, throw morlocks at them!
  7. One step closer... by QuantumFTL · · Score: 2, Funny

    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?

  8. Re:Don't underestimate prosthetics by Darkman,+Walkin+Dude · · Score: 4, Funny

    That's a bold statement of fact, considering even the most avid proponents of evolution refer to it as "theory".

    Not a great troll... poignant, with a hint of maple... but lacking in the body and depth that a really rich, warm troll should have... I'll have to give this one star, I'm afraid.

    --
    What he can't kill, he has sex on. Trent.
  9. How about some hair regeneration? by glrotate · · Score: 5, Funny

    Let's focus our efforts on something a little more important.

    Thanks.

  10. Re:Potential for other applications by kfg · · Score: 2, Funny

    If they can give soldiers the ability to grow amputated limbs, any possibility this technology can be used to produce 100% real enlarged breasts?

    Yes, but don't be surprised if people look at you funny -- or maybe that should be funnier.

    KFG

  11. so about the guy who got the penis transplant.... by Nocturnal+Deviant · · Score: 2, Funny

    now he wont have to look down and see another mans penis lol

    --
    -Noc