Scientists Regrow Chicken Wing

An anonymous reader writes "Unlike salamanders and lizards, most animals have lost the ability to replace missing limbs. But a research team in San Diego has been able to regenerate a wing in a chick embryo — a species not known to be able to regrow limbs — suggesting the potential for such regeneration exists innately in all vertebrates, including humans." From the article: "Manipulating Wnt signaling in humans is, of course, not possible at this point, Belmonte says, but hopes that these findings may eventually offer insights into current research examining the ability of stem cells to build new human body tissues and parts. For example, he said Wnt signaling may push mature cells go back in time and 'dedifferentiate' into stem-like cells, in order to be able to then differentiate once more, producing all of the different tissues needed to build a limb."

Comments

Deevolution?

[operagost]

The ability to regenerate limbs is a great advantage. Why would birds and mammals have lost this ability via evolution?

Re:Deevolution?

[Solder Fumes]

Maybe the ability to have consequences for being stupid enough to get your leg taken off is a net positive for a species, though it's an obvious negative for an individual? I have no idea. That would be like a meta-evolution there, and kind of anthropomorphises the theory.

Re:Deevolution?

[Monkeys!!!]

It's possible that they never had the ability as environmental influences didn't lead to regeneration being a evolutionary edge.

Lizards on the other hand probably had a different evolutionary environment where regeneration lead to an increase in survival.

Then again, I'm a business student so chances are I'm wrong :)

Re:Deevolution?

[ResidntGeek]

The most likely reason is the metabolic cost - most warm-blooded animals can't sit around in the sun for three months, using all their energy to regrow a limb.

Re:Deevolution?

[Kelson]

Lizards could have picked up the ability after birds and mammals split off from reptiles. IANA paleontologist, of course, so I have no idea when lizards picked up the ability.

Alternatively, it could simply not have been useful enough for the early mammals and birds. Selection pressure only applies to things that increase your ability to reproduce. (Survive to reproductive age, find a mate, and produce viable offspring.) And if, say, flight or fur proved to be more advantageous than regenerating a tail, flight and fur would win out.

Remember, evolution isn't a ladder, it's a tree. Or maybe a branching vine would be more appropriate an analogy. There's no absolute "better" or "worse" -- just better or worse for a particular ecological niche.

Re:Deevolution?

[x2A]

"so chances are I'm wrong :)"

Is that what they teach you in business school? :-p

Re:Deevolution?

[dasunt]

The ability to regenerate limbs is a great advantage. Why would birds and mammals have lost this ability via evolution?

In coding, each feature has a cost associated with it. Nothing is free. A feature will result in the combination of one or more of the following: more design/coding time, higher memory use, more CPU use, a higher chance of bugs, etc.

Evolution is the same.

For some creatures, the advantages are outweighed by the disadvantages.

For other creatures, the disadvantages are outweighed by the advantages. For many creatures, perhaps regenerating the limb isn't that useful -- the biology of the animal might mean that the loss of a limb is general fatal due to blood loss or infection (assuming the animal survives the accident/attack, which may be unlikely).

In addition, just because a feature may be a net advantage for a creature doesn't mean that it will magically appear. Genetic mutation is a crapshoot. Regeneration might have been perfected after the split from the decendents of other animals. Or perhaps the common ancestor of (say) salamanders and mammals was capable of generation, but after the split happened, regeneration had too high of a cost for the line that lead to mammals, and the genetic code was lost or adapted for some feature that was more useful.

I hope that explanation helps.

Re:Deevolution?

[NiteTrip]

It wasn't lost, it was taken away. Another variable in the mix in the game of life.

Re:Deevolution?

[Lux]

Well, genetic coding is pretty cheap in eukaryotes (most of our genetic code doesn't actually *do* anything as far as we can tell) and we aren't designed, so I don't think I buy your theory.

I posit that regeneration is not a selective advantage for most vertebrates. If a "feature" does not have the net result of fostering [more] progeny, then it is not a selective advantage. If a proto-chicken loses a wing or a leg in the wild, it's gonna die *long* before it grows back and benefits from the regrowth. Hence, no selective advantage.

Ironically, being able to grow back something that you *really* need doesn't help you that much because you need it too bad to be able to grow it back.

Lizards and salamanders are an exception. They have this dangly-part that's more likely to get lopped off by predators than the rest and doesn't serve much useful function otherwise. Growing it back means they might evade another predator with the second one, and go on to reproduce again.

Larger vertebrates wouldn't find that feature as useful: a gazelle can't sqeeze into a crack to escape a cheetah, and a mouse's tail isn't as large compared to its body.

Genes that don't provide significant selective advantages tend to mutate away after several generations of inutility. Something like ten or so in e. coli, IIRC. Not sure about other organisms.

Re:Deevolution?

[Monkeys!!!]

No they teach us that you can never be wrong, merely "uninformed" or that it's "not part of your department".

Truthfully, they do actually teach you how to ensure that your accounts are never wrong in the first year accounting unit I took. A whole lecture was devoted to what they called "Creative Accounting". Covered various nasty tricks to ensure that your books balanced the way management dictated they balance. All legal of course :)

Re:Deevolution?

[RsG]

The explanation that I am familiar with (and if there are any evolutionary biologists present, feel free to correct me) is that regeneration is too time consuming for a warm blooded animal.

With a reptile or amphibian, the wounded individual can afford to lose the weeks or more of downtime while their wounds or missing limbs regenerate. With a mammal or bird, the constant need for food to fuel a warm blooded metabolism wouldn't give a wounded individual time to heal in the same fashion; instead of regeneration, we scar instead. To use an technological metaphor, mammals slap a patch on the wound for faster recovery, while reptiles take the time to do a thorough repair job.

In any case, in the wild complete loss of limb would almost always be fatal for a mammal (barring infection or blood loss, you might live long enough to starve to death), so faster, incomplete healing via scarring is going to be good enough for most of the injuries we'd have a chance to recover from. We trade the ability to recover fully for the ability to recover quickly.

Today of course we no longer die as easily from our wounds, or from the inability to fend for ourselves after being crippled, so we have a vested interest in reworking this process. If we could induce regeneration in amputees for example, we could put them in a hospital for however long it takes to grow back and regain the use of their limbs - something we never could have done in our evolutionary history.

Re:Deevolution?

[Anonymous Coward]

or your understanding (and that of the GP) is less than complete.

Re:Deevolution?

[Anonymous Coward]

Because evolution is not about building neat features. Loss of limbs is not exactly an epidemic among humans, we have big brains for avoiding getting our limbs chopped off in the first place, not to mention rather sturdier limbs.

Re:Deevolution?

[Solder Fumes]

I don't really buy that argument. It seems that a VERY slow regeneration would not be a huge energy drain, but would be advantageous assuming the animal could survive for months or even longer during regeneration. It would be better than no regeneration at all.

Re:Deevolution?

[RsG]

It isn't a question of it being an energy drain, it's a question of how long the injury affects you. If it's a choice between getting hurt then regenerating over a period of weeks (during which the wound will affect your ability to function), and getting hurt then healing with scarring over a period of days (thus shortening the vulnerable period), then the latter makes more sense for us. The former makes more sense for reptiles, who can go for weeks to months without food, which we obviously cannot. Remember that doing the job right takes time, whereas a quick and dirty fix does not.

Of course, in reality it probably isn't a clear cut either/or scenario, but more likely a spectrum ranging from one extreme to the other (faster healing versus complete healing). In that sense, we do regenerate (our wounds heal, don't they?), we just don't regrow lost limbs, or heal without permanent marks.

Re:Deevolution?

[euniana]

Hmm...

Doctor Connors, anyone?

Re:Deevolution?

[Dunbal]

Why would birds and mammals have lost this ability via evolution?

      Because there's not much advantage to growing back a limb when you've already been eaten. This also makes it rather hard to pass your genes on... Consider a bird that has lost a wing. How likely is this animal to survive a second attack by a predator? The same applies to a quadruped with 3 legs. Or a fish with a missing fin.

      The lizards are an exception. Losing their tail is a distraction to the predator that lets them get away and survive. Living without a tail harms them not one bit. So they can pass those genes on. You could argue why mammals don't regrow their tails, and the answer is that the lizards had the mutation whereas the mammals didn't. Mutations are random. Evolution only happens when they confer a significant advantage.

Re:Deevolution?

[Dunbal]

most of our genetic code doesn't actually *do* anything as far as we can tell

      Emphasis mine. Just because we don't know what "junk DNA" is for doesn't mean it's not useful. When we manage to build a cell without junk DNA and have it work perfectly, we'll be able to prove that there's no use to it. It might even just be there for padding, like the polystyrene pellets in a box. Just because you throw them out right away doesn't mean there's no use to them - they protect what you really needed to protect inside the box. The more junk you have, the more likely that mutation is going to happen in a "junky" area rather than the genes you actually need...

Re:Deevolution?

[PietjeJantje]

The explanation is simply that birds and other animals that evolved from the leg-losers, don't frequently lose legs, hence this ability is far from being critical for survival, and unused biological abilities wither over time because alterations which don't sport that ability survive just fine.

Re:Deevolution?

[ghyd]

I cannot imagine the sensation of regenerating a limb, over maybe years. Strange thought.

Re:Deevolution?

[osgeek]

RTF: The same process that encourages regeneration also causes cancer. Cancer is such a huge problem that it counteracts the obvious advantages of long life and limb regeneration.

Once we figure out better ways to control cancer outbreaks in our cells, amazing opportunities to manipulate our bodies will become available to us.

Understanding and controlling cancer is the key to everything.

Re:Deevolution?

[Anonymous Coward]

Loss of limbs is not exactly an epidemic among humans

Ever heard of Iraq?

Re:Deevolution?

[Maian]

Not an evolutionary biologist, but I've taken evo classes before and we had to read a paper concerning this very topic. You pretty much nailed it.

Re:Deevolution?

[jc42]

As an interesting aside, the people looking at the genes behind regeneration and scarring have explained that they are basically the same set of genes. What Ma Nature did was to "retarget" the regeneration mechanism, tweaking it to give us a quick-and-dirty mode that isn't quite healing or regeneration, but which quickly seals over a wound with scar tissue.

This isn't really good news for us, because it means that we can't just reactivate the original genes. They aren't there any more; they've been modified to work differently. Messing with the current genes will probably lead to poor healing in the first few thousand test animals. Introducing regeneration in mammals will probably require developing a parallel set of genes that can be added to our genome. It will be based on both the reptilian regeneration genes and the mammalian scarring genes, but won't be quite the same as either. And developing this will take a lot of work.

So don't expect that we'll have regeneration of lost limbs anytime soon.

Re:Deevolution?

[jc42]

Just because we don't know what "junk DNA" is for doesn't mean it's not useful.

Researchers are starting to point this out.

A recent example: The sequencing of the DNA of the domestic chicken found a 20,000-base-pair "non-coding" (i.e., "junk") sequence that is very nearly identical with a sequence in human DNA. For such a long sequence to be preserved is highly unlikely unless it has a strong adaptive advantage. We don't have any idea what it does, but the only reasonable conclusion is that it's very important to both chickens and humans. That's the only way it could have been preserved for the roughly 180 million years since our last common ancestor.

Either that, or it's a retrovirus that infects both species and recently invaded both genomes. Possible, but a lot less likely.

Re:Deevolution?

[Anonymous Coward]

LINEs. jumping genes: not just for corn anymore. which is not to imply a lack of signficance to such features.

Re:Deevolution?

[lessthan]

I really love how the article spells DARPA as Darpa, throught the entire article. Tiny little nitpick error.

Re:Deevolution?

[Walt Dismal]

You realize this is the Holy Grail for the Hooters chain. No longer need they have to have guilty consciences about the millions of now-wingless chickens they massacred just so beer-drinking guys can stare at great boobs, while eating Spicy Buffalo Wings.

Re:Deevolution?

[Anonymous Coward]

Just another example of a lame duck experiment.

Re:Deevolution?

[binarybum]

I would propose that it may have something to do with cancer. Having a system in place capable of emulating fetal development in the adult, especially a system that would have to be designed to interact with adult tissue would open up a slew of potential places for growth to get out of control in response to injury or aberrant activation.

I can see it now

[Monkeys!!!]

New KFC Neverending bucket of chicken!

For when just one heart bypass won't do.

*mmmmm neverending chicken wings*

Re:I can see it now

[Harmonious Botch]

Bypass? I'm gonna grow a new heart!

Re:I can see it now

[AndroidCat]

To heck with KFC! I want a plate of suicide wings and regenerating pint of beer on wing-night!

Re:I can see it now

[toufeeq]

Woo Hoo! I can now open a Fried chicken business with just one chicken

Re:I can see it now

[AndroidCat]

Wellll, it tastes like chicken...

Re:I can see it now

[Anonymous Coward]

I can't _wait_ to have my Redundant Array of Inexpensive Hearts installed, so I can eat KFC 5 meals a day!

Re:I can see it now

[Anonymous Coward]

That would be cruel to the poor chicken. The moral and respectful thing would be to kill it before you eat it, or not eat it at all.

Re:I can see it now

[Anonymous Coward]

That falls under the category of animal cruelty, though, don't you think? I mean, cutting off the wings of a chicken and regrowing them over and over sound like like a permanent torture over the live of the chicken. Your post is a joke, but one I hope never even considered by any food industry.

Re:I can see it now

[Cranky_92109]

Yeah, the only problem is that it tastes like squirrel. :(

mmmmmmmm

[Anonymous Coward]

mmmmmmmm

Sliding scale

[MichaelSmith]

From TFA:

noted that if Wnt signaling is activated for too long of a period in these animals, cancer results. "This has to be done in a controlled way, with just a few cells for a specific amount of time," he says. "The fact is that this pathway is involved in cell proliferation, whether it is to generate or regenerate limbs, control stem cells, or produce cancer."

Turn it down to 0 and you eventually die of old age. Turn it up to 11 and you die of cancer. If the human equivalent can be found we may have a whole class of very old people who debate ways of achieving the right balance.

If something like this is under trial in 20 years or so I will definitely be giving it a go.

I for one

[THE anonymus coward]

I for one welcome our new wing-regrowing chicken overlords.

That's pretty damned cool...

[Anonymous Coward]

Considering that even God apparently can't heal amputees.

Hmm...

[zptao]

No results found for Wnt. Did you mean Ownt?

Regeneration in mice

[Harmonious Botch]

Ellen Heber-Katz, a professor at the Wistar Institute in Philadelphia, was working with mice that had been genetically engineered to develop lupus when she noticed that some of their ears looked weird. She had punched holes in them so she could separate her control from her treatment groups in an experiment. But the holes quickly grew shut without a trace -- not even a hint of a scar.

The missing ear holes confused her research at the time, but the phenomenon launched a whole new career for Katz.

She and her colleagues wanted to find out if other parts of these mice, known as the MRL strain, would also regenerate. So they performed some tests: They snipped off the tip of a tail, severed a spinal cord, injured the optic nerve and damaged various internal organs.

All of the injuries healed, even the severed spinal cord. The results caused Heber-Katz to shift her research from autoimmune disease to regenerative medicine.

Now, thanks to Darpa's call for grant applications in regeneration, scientists all over the country from various disciplines are working together on the MRL mouse...

More at http://www.wired.com/news/technology/medtech/0,718 17-1.html?tw=wn_story_page_next1

Re:Regeneration in mice

[Xemu]

They snipped off the tip of a tail, severed a spinal cord, injured the optic nerve and damaged various internal organs.

Sounds like the script of a Tarantino movie...

Re:Regeneration in mice

[Dunbal]

They snipped off the tip of a tail, severed a spinal cord, injured the optic nerve and damaged various internal organs.

Sounds like the script of a Tarantino movie...

      Kill Bill meets Resident Evil! Everyone knows you have to shoot those mice IN THE BRAIN so that they die...

Re:Regeneration in mice

[The_mad_linguist]

That story was on slashdot a while back http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/09/0 1/0035245&tid=99&tid=14 and they've identifed the regeneration gene in flatworms as well. http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/11/2 7/0559200&tid=191&tid=14

Re:Regeneration in mice

[Anonymous Coward]

"Ellen Heber-Katz, a professor at the Wistar Institute in Philadelphia, was working with mice that had been genetically engineered to develop lupus when she noticed that some of their ears looked weird. She had punched holes in them so she could separate her control from her treatment groups in an experiment."

What an icon of compassion she must be...
So she "punched holes" in mice's ears, no doubt without anaesthetic. Perhaps she should do some research into human empathy and why so many people are completely lacking in it.

Sick vivisectionists torturing animals have always come up with news of 'breakthroughs' that lead to nothing, as any treatments and cures that ever DO come about ALWAYS come about through HUMAN EXPERIMENTS, or 'clinical trials' as the vivisectionists euphemistically call them.
What happened to that 'wonder drug' Interferon?

Why are millions of people being poisoned to death with AZT and other DNA chain terminators? Because animal experiments are a big fraud, which is all you would expect from the evil fuckers who commit these atrocities every day, knowing full well they are never going to cure anybody.

I wonder when they are going to find a cure for cancer? They've had over FIFTY years to find out, yet they're not even one inch closer today, than they were then. So why do most people put so much faith in these snake oil salesmen?

Re:Regeneration in mice

[Hogwash McFly]

I'd rather have Quad Damage, if you don't mind.

Re:Regeneration in mice

[Chmcginn]

I wonder when they are going to find a cure for cancer? They've had over FIFTY years to find out, yet they're not even one inch closer today, than they were then. So why do most people put so much faith in these snake oil salesmen?

Responding to your entire post would raise my blood pressure way too high... but I can hit this part up real quick. 'Cancer' isn't one disease, or even one class of disease - like the common cold, or the flu, there's not one cure because it varies so much from type to type. As far as curing it... well, the survival rates (as in, survive long enough for something else to kill you) are much, much higher today than they were even twenty or thirty years ago, much less fifty.

and somewhere in the distance...

[entroemcee]

john wayne bobbitt lets out a sigh of relief.........

Re:and somewhere in the distance...

[Anonymous Coward]

b/c he likes chicken wings??

Hooters

[MDMurphy]

I'm getting tired of big companies and "scientific papers" motivated by purely corporate gain.

No global warming: Oil Companies
Pirate DVDs fund terrorists: MPAA

Now we have the Salk Institute, not 5 minutes drive from a Hooters, searching the endless source of chicken wings.

Shameful.

Re:Hooters

[Lord Kano]

Now we have the Salk Institute, not 5 minutes drive from a Hooters, searching the endless source of chicken wings.

What do we have that is more than 5 minutes drive from a Hooters? Hell, even churches and universities are usually within a 5 minute drive of a Hooters.

LK

Regenerating Chicken Wings?

[QuantumFTL]

For the love of God don't put any of these near stoners!

So how long...

[Stonent1]

Until Wingstreet or Hooters invests in this?

This is a good start

[Anonymous Coward]

Now we need to genetically modify chickens with genes from a variety of peppers, onions, garlic, herbs .. etc so that they have sweat glands that produce barbecue sauce.

Re:This is a good start

[Anonymous Coward]

Do not mock this man; yea, they mocked the guy that originally thought of the seedless watermelon.

Scientific flap?

[Tablizer]

Scientists Regrow Chicken Wing

What happened to the scientists' original wing, and how did they grow one on themselves?

Re:Scientific flap?

[wkitchen]

If I were a scientist, and had a chicken wing on me, I don't think I'd WANT it to grow back if it got cut off.

Nerves?

[bill_mcgonigle]

By changing the expression of a few genes, you can change the ability of a vertebrate to regenerate their limbs, rebuilding blood vessels, bone, muscles, and skin - everything that is needed."

Is that list supposed to be everything that's needed or did he just stop enumerating? Because TFA doesn't mention nerves and if they hook up properly at the point where the nerves were severed; I'm not sure I'd rather have a new limp arm than no arm at all.

Re:Nerves?

[Carthag]

The mice mentioned above regrew a severed spinal cord so it sounds like nerves are go.

New spam subject lines

[pipingguy]

Cue the "grow bigger, extra pen1s NOW!" junk emails in about 5, 4, 2...

Re:New spam subject lines

[RsG]

Sure, but how many procedures do ya think they'd sell when the customers realize that in order to enlarge it, they have to cut it off first and then let it regrow? I wouldn't touch that sort of surgery with a ten foot pole, even if I got a ten foot pole out of it...

Re:New spam subject lines

[Anonymous Coward]

I wouldn't touch that sort of surgery with a ten foot pole, even if I got a ten foot pole out of it...

I wouldn't mind touching the surgeon with my ten foot pole...

Re:New spam subject lines

[Hogwash McFly]

Your sig seems strangely appropriate...

Re:New spam subject lines

[pipingguy]

Bigger/more is always better. In the future (AKA lame-o business-speak's "going forward") we'll see porn featuring individuals with 5 24" penises penetrating multiple females that have car airbag-sized funbags.

Re:New spam subject lines

[Repton]

Off-topic, but this reminds me of the old story of the head of Vecna...

Re:New spam subject lines

[afedaken]

Bigger/more is always better. In the future (AKA lame-o business-speak's "going forward") we'll see porn featuring individuals with 5 24" penises penetrating multiple females that have car airbag-sized funbags.

Hurray for hentai!

I for one foresee...

[Gentlewhisper]

..."pee pee regrowth services! Chop it off and with the aid of our magical cream it will regrow into a 10 inch monster! Call now at 1800-MYPEEPEE and order yours at our introductory price of $39.95!"

Re:I for one foresee...

[Anonymous Coward]

Dear 1800-MYPEEPEE,

I would like to complain. I purchased your product and followed the instructions exactly.
Something is growing back, but it appears to be taking the shape of a chicken wing...

Re:I for one foresee...

[Dunbal]

Something is growing back, but it appears to be taking the shape of a chicken wing...

      Look on the bright side, this might give a whole new meaning to "oral sex". Now tell me, does your girlfriend prefer hot and spicy, honey mustard, or standard buffalo flavor? :)

Rust Belt Revival

[Anonymous Coward]

This is just the thing an ailing Buffalo economy needs to put itself back on the map...

The Black Night says...

[Anonymous Coward]

"...you see, you see, it really is just a flesh wound!"

Re:The Black Night says...

[smoker2]

When did Deep Purple start writing Monty Python ?

(hint: black knight)

PETA

[Anonymous Coward]

No longer will innocent chickens have to die to give us their wings! We can just endlessly cut them off, regenerate them, cut them off, regenerate them, etc.

On second thought, endlessly torturing chickens would probably piss PETA off even more than the current state of things...

Re:foolish scientists playing god again

[Nanpa]

"I hope they go to hell."

And turn up the air-conditioning? Those Scientists know who's boss!

yummy!

[BortQ]

Get the beer kegs ready - endless chicken wings await. Once they learn how to regrow hot sauce western civilization will be complete.

Re:yummy!

[_tognus]

Screw the hot sauce! Regrow the beer!

Re:yummy!

[BortQ]

Hmmmm..... perhaps there is an open-source urine2beer converter kicking around somewhere...

Re:yummy!

[Dunbal]

open-source urine2beer converter

      Beer is never sold. Only rented...

Grow Chicken Wing Without the Chicken-PROFIT!

[RandySC]

Grow Chicken Wing Without the Chicken->PROFIT!

Heh...

[Anonymous Coward]

Chicken... San Diego...

Most importantly

[Bob54321]

what did it taste like?

Re:Most importantly

[Chocolate Teapot]

A guy was driving down a country road when he was overtaken by a speeding chicken. The chicken was moving so fast he never got a good look at it, so he speeded to 90 miles per hour and started to catch up. As he got closer, he could have sworn the chicken had an extra leg, but it really just a blur as it accelerated past 100 and disappeared into the distance. Further up the road, the man noticed that the dust cloud seemed to lead into a farmyard, so he pulled in and went to look for the farmer.
"Mornin'," said the farmer appearing from the barn with a bucket of feed, "can I help you?".
"I don't know," said the guy "but I'm sure I saw a three-legged chicken come in here."
"Yep, I breeds 'em." came the reply."I likes a leg, my wife likes a leg and my boy likes a leg."
"Amazing!" said the man, "What do they taste like?"
"Dunno," said the farmer, "I haven't caught one yet."

Where's the Blue Cheese?

[ZX3 Junglist]

we've been waiting patiently here in Buffalo, where self-replicating nano hot-sauce has just been created.

its a start

[somepunk]

A chick? A chick embryo at that? Not exactly impressive, but baby steps, eh?
*ducks*

Re:its a start

[jbenwell]

Not ducks. Chickens. Kindly RTA.

I want it back!!

[Anonymous Coward]

Good, now maybe I can get my foreskin back. Greedy pedophile American doctors...

obligatory.

[B3ryllium]

Save the Chicken Wing, Save the World.

Scarring

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't remember where I read it (probably in another /. post), but the ability to regrow limbs and the ability to build scar tissue are mutually exclusive. Mammals, what with our speedy metabolism's constant need for food, generally cannot spare the time or energy that a reptile or amphibian can to regrow a missing limb or tail, and instead build scar tissue over the wound as sort of a "quick-fix". Evolutionarily speaking, the ability to heal quickly is more favorable than the ability to regrow a limb by sitting around and waiting. We simply don't have the luxury of time. Brings a whole new meaning to "scarred for life", eh?

KFC Makes Breakthrough

[MSTCrow5429]

Now we can harvest the delicious wings from the chicken, and leave the chickens in their pens to regrow their wings for future harvests.

Seriously?

[PhreeStyle]

I hope science figures this stuff out soon, I would like to get my foreskin back.

Re:Seriously?

[Anonymous Coward]

I hope science figures this stuff out soon, I would like to get my foreskin back.

Seriously, you already can, to an extent. It takes a couple years, and is not a replacement (you won't regrow the millions of nerve endings you lost, but you will cover the glans, which was designed to be covered).

Google for "regrow foreskin", there'll be a lot of good links. Some people refer to themselves as "tapers" because the primary technique is to use tape to pull it into position so that it will grow -- similar to the tribesmen in Africa who put plates in their lips or hang weights from their earlobes, and thereby change the shape of their bodies.

Re:Seriously?

[lawpoop]

And me my rich, luxurious scalp of hair.

If you

Weird Opening

[brunes69]

Unlike salamanders and lizards, most animals have lost the ability to replace missing limbs.

So salamanders and lizards are not animals now? What are they then? Bacteria? People? Aliens?

U think the submitter meant some reptiles and amphibians here.

Re:Weird Opening

[Anonymous Coward]

no, the submitter makes perfect sense.
unlike specific subset of superset, the rest of the superset (most of it in fact) cannot regrow limbs.

Becker Again

[Pictish Prince]

I hate to keep harping on this - the reason I do is because the man's research was so profound and he was sooooo screwed over by the establishment.

In The Body Electric, Robert Becker describes how he was able to induce blastema formation to re-knit bone fractures.

Re:Becker Again

[jonissan]

Yep we were screwed as well by the lack of support for his research...

He reports in chapter seven of the same book of the observation of surgeon Cynthia Illingworth that a child of less than about 11 years old whose fingertip is severed beyond the outermost crease of the outmost joint will invariably regrow perfectly in around 3 months.

Looks like we humans already have some of this ability but it goes wrong around or just before puberty(my guess as to when).

It seems inextricably intertwined with cancer.
Becker suggests several experiments with regard to this at the end of chapter 12.

But it remains as to how to get funding for same.

Obligatory Simpsons Quote

[Progman3K]

Mmmm... Chicken wings...

Wings

[alexj33]

I'm just glad they discovered how to regrow chicken wings before the Super Bowl and NCAA championships.

This is a great news!

[StarbuckZero]

I'm saying that because it's a step forward...not because it's was chicken wing and I'm a black guy posting this. ^_^

I would like to place a pre-order

[tsa]

One heart, please.

now if we can get...

[justinzero]

A cow that produces delicious ranch dressing, we'll be in business. I wonder who's got good buffalo sauce recipes...

God can not regrow limbs, science can!

[IdleTime]

When one consider how many religious people claim that their god can do anything, he can not regrow limbs. Not a single amputee has had their limbs grown back as a result of prayer, even hough the bible say that god will do anything you ask of him.

Religion == fantasy, science == reality.

Re:God can not regrow limbs, science can!

[IdleTime]

To the one who modded my comment as flamebait: When has the truth become a flamebait?

Dr. Connors

[despisethesun]

Are we sure we should be pursuing this kind of research? Isn't this how Curt Connors became The Lizard?

At least the pubs will be happy

[Socguy]

Finally, a soloution to this annoying superbowl chicken wing shortage!

Damn Catholics!

[Anonymous Coward]

They made a a chicken-monster of God.

Too late for one...

[ScuxxletButt]

Too late for John Wayne Bobbett, but maybe not too late for Lorena's next husband.

I thought...

[Ten24]

KFC has been doing this for years. You know that's the same slimy wing you're eating every time, the one with the chewy lump in the center.

John Bobbit is sleeping well these days

[enmane]

dreaming of seeing his little John again...

Re:The Black Knight says...

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah yeah, I realized the misspelling after I previewed and posted. My bad.

- A seeeely Eeenglish knnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnighitt

see

[Anonymous Coward]

"Manipulating Wnt signaling in humans is, of course, not possible at this point."

Of course, because there'd be nothing but talk everywhere about a perfect procedure related
to this.

Good!

[MichaelKaiserProScri]

Think of the positive ramifications for Hooters, KFC, etc....

Multiple wings?

[AlHunt]

But could we get chickens with 6 or 8 wings each and barbecue sauce? THEN I'd be impressed!

endless wings for everyone!

[ILuvRamen]

yay! Now endless wings at Buffalo Wild Wings are going to be even cheaper cuz they'll grow them right in the kitchen! Now they need to invent something to make the waitor/waitress come around more often and I'll be set :)