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How To Grow a Head

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the no-not-like-that dept.

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."

11 of 355 comments (clear)

  1. Re:What??? by DarkKnightRadick · · Score: 2, Insightful

    redneck isn't racially charged, AC. It refers to a sub-group that encompasses many racial groups (though I have not encountered Asian rednecks, I have met black and white ones).

    --
    "There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death." Proverbs 16:25 (NKJV)
  2. And for further reading by kenp2002 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Science always advances faster then the moral and ethics of the society.

    Science Fiction tends to serve as the cursory warning of the abuses of science. Please reply with suggetsions on reading that our fellow scientists should watch when they are not busy playing God (in the figurative sense.)

    The Island comes to mind but even comic books like the Micronauts foretold the warnings of Body Bank abuses. The Repo Men is a recent film that from what I can gather might also make for a good reading.

    Oh how I wish that science would first think:
    "Ok if this works what are the ethics" rather then "do it first, then we'll worry about the ethics later."

    I'm all for science, I just have the crippling burden of being a history buff, knowing how often science gives birth to atrocities. Comparing post-1600s science has made religion look tame.

    --
    -=[ Who Is John Galt? ]=-
    1. Re:And for further reading by drinkypoo · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Oh how I wish that science would first think:
      "Ok if this works what are the ethics" rather then "do it first, then we'll worry about the ethics later."

      Science doesn't think anything. It's a process. Plenty of scientists can be assumed to have chosen morality over science. You don't hear about them because they didn't do anything. All scientific progress can be put to ends both good and ill, there is therefore nothing ethical or unethical about science fact, only the actions of men.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    2. Re:And for further reading by nohelix · · Score: 4, Insightful

      This is very true. Just look at Nobel [Wikipedia]. When designed nitroglycerin, he was trying to make a safer explosive for miners. Instead he made a tool of war and was horrified by it. It was not his morality nor his invention that was flawed. It was the people who used it. I would think by now that our society had moved past the base point of science is evil and technology is amoral. That cell phone in your pocket could be used to make a bomb threat or call an ambulance for the guy having a heart attack. As for this research, it is quite a ways off from any useful/practical applications. But people hope that when it does come to fruition, it will be for things first like severe brain damage cause by an accident, a blood clot or other damage. And while yes, planarians have a cephalic ganglia (brain) and a complex nervous system for being a simple invertebrate, it is vastly less complex than even a mouse brain. As a case in point, their "eyes" are a photoreceptor not a lens, so while they can see and react to light, they do not have the capability to distinguish shapes. Disclaimer: I work in a research lab that uses S. mediterranea, the flatworm used in this paper.

    3. Re:And for further reading by lennier · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Science doesn't think anything. It's a process.

      And therein lies a problem. An unthinking process is not something you want to have any kind of authority in the world whatsoever that's not checked and triple-checked by a guardian with thought and ethics. Otherwise it's going to stop all over you, guaranteed.

      You wouldn't run 'rm -rf *' as root, would you? Neither should you start an amoral process called 'science' and let it do whatever it wants. You should query at every point 'is this pursuit or organisation working for humanity, or against it?'

      Plenty of scientists can be assumed to have chosen morality over science. You don't hear about them because they didn't do anything.

      No, I think the statement you're looking for is 'You've heard quite a bit about some of them because, for instance, they were extremely outspoken against what they considered to be science becoming abusive and destructive for exactly the reasons mentioned above.'

      All scientific progress can be put to ends both good and ill, there is therefore nothing ethical or unethical about science fact, only the actions of men.

      Not quite correct either. There is plenty of scientific knowledge, for example, what happens when a live human encounters poison gas, anthrax, radiation, or a landmine, which can't really be either gained ethically, or used ethically. Unless you define 'ethical' as 'causing pain and suffering to someone the current political regime dislikes.'

      Some knowledge is only really useful for causing suffering. Some scientific 'progress' is progress in the art of maiming and killing. It's usually blandly called 'defense research'.

      Some knowledge looks like it might be dual-use for hurting or helping, but turns out in practice that the side effects outweigh the benefits. That's the sort of knowledge which an ethics check would have prevented.

      --
      You are not a brain: http://books.google.com/books?id=2oV61CeDx-YC
  3. Is it just me or.... by ProppaT · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Is it just me or is this the last body part we should actually care about regenerating? Once my brain is gone, I couldn't care less if you regenerated it for me to start over with a fresh, empty brain or not. I'd rather them find a way to regenerate my body on my existing head, thank you very much.

    --
    Wise men say, "Forgiveness is divine, but never pay full price for late pizza."
  4. Re:Okay, that's it... by Aceticon · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Only it's not a copy. It's your real head. You're the copy.

  5. Re:What??? by sycodon · · Score: 2, Insightful

    For your average Slashdotter, "labor" is the walk from the far ends of the parking lot to their cubicle.

    --
    When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
  6. Re:Oh Sure by FatdogHaiku · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Where's your head at?

    And that's the key! If we can get these things to grow near the groin and with the proper orientation they could be really popular...

    --
    You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office
  7. Re:getting ahead of myself by Kirin+Fenrir · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Basically the questions concern privacy (as individuals they have very little) and morality (do we want two men sharing them, or do we want them sharing one man).

    It doesn't matter what we want. Only what they want. Society needs to stay out of the personal lives of consenting adults.

    --
    Caffeine is my anti-drug!

    Duranin - A NWN2 Roleplaying Persistent World
  8. Re:Okay, that's it... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    I would then wonder in simultaneous curiosity and self loathing if I have a talented little mouth...