How To Grow a Head

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."

Comments

Oh Sure

[eldavojohn]

Everyone was in favor of growing Hitler's head. But the when you grow it on the body of a great white shark -- ooh, suddenly you've gone too far!

(side note if you recognize that paraphrase: mark your calendars/DVRs for June 24th!)

Re:Oh Sure

[Ironix]

I can't help but reply to this.

Would that make it...

[Anonymous Coward]

a smed head?

Re:Would that make it...

[skine]

So the British scientists are getting ahead, but only a little.

Okay, that's it...

[ShadowDragoonFTW]

Okay, that's it, science is getting too damn strange for me now.

Re:Okay, that's it...

[Yvan256]

Take the blue pill. The story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe.

Re:Okay, that's it...

[tmosley]

Then roll over and find a copy of your own head in the bed with you.

How "working"?

[ciaran_o_riordan]

"Working" as in, you pull the chord and the ear moves?

Or "working" as in, you go for the chord, but the things runs off and starts multiplying and plotting the demise of your species?

Zaphod?

[A beautiful mind]

Zaphod, my buddy! Is that you?!

Re:Zaphod?

[dkleinsc]

Actually, I'm surprised we've gotten this far without quoting this cute ditty by Shel Silverstein:

Chester came to school and said,
“Durn, I growed another head.”
Teacher said, “It’s time you knowed
The word is ‘grew’ instead of ‘growed’ ”

Re:Yes but can they do it without copying Migranes

[Mindcontrolled]

At the moment, this only works for flatworms, whose purchasing power is rather limited, last time I checked. So I doubt they will make a fortune soon. Then again, the difference between a banker and a flatworm is probably somewhat negligible. Actually, no, I am sorry. My sincerest apologies to all the flatworms reading slashdot.

hmmph, sensational

[Gnaythan1]

From what I gather, they figured out the gene sequence in flatworms for growing another head for a flatworm, and can do so consistently.

Since our genes are similar, they probably can figure out where the genes for growing a human head are, and *might* be able to use that info for regenerating damaged brain tissue

No zaphod's anytime soon.

Re:Grow parts of fingers?

[VorpalRodent]

According to the article, this technology is already here...assuming you can accept your new fingers having hair, eyes, and a brain.

Re:Grow parts of fingers?

[Anonymous Coward]

According to the article, this technology is already here...assuming you can accept your new fingers having hair, eyes, and a brain.

Everything was going great right up until I started masturbating ... then it got awesome.

Obligatory MIB

[Anonymous Coward]

"Do you have ANY idea how much that stings?!"

Hello??? This is Slashdot

[GodfatherofSoul]

Those are not the body parts we seek.

And for further reading

[kenp2002]

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.

Re:And for further reading

[drinkypoo]

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.

Re:And for further reading

[nohelix]

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.

Tonight...

[RuBLed]

Pinky: Brain, I have an idea...

Is it just me or....

[ProppaT]

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.

Re:What???

[jweller]

I realize that in this room, defending the redneck is probably about as fruitless as pissing up a rope, but here goes. My next door neighbor is one of the biggest rednecks you will ever meet, and he will tell you the same. He works a blue collar Union job, loves NASCAR, drives a pickup truck, smokes dope, and swills more cheap beer than you can imagine. He also has been married to the same woman for 25+ years, put both his daughters through College, Worked for the same company for 20+ years and is now a shop foreman, isn't a racist, and is generally the nicest guy you'd ever want to meet.

I think the pejorative most of you are looking for is "White trash"

Re:Grow parts of fingers?

[holmstar]

Saw a documentary once where a guy who had lost a good half inch off the end of his finger and managed to regrow it, complete with fingerprints, by keeping it moist, and coating it with powdered "scaffold" protein every day. Apparently the presence of the scaffold protein triggered the stem cells that were present to start regrowing the lost tissue. The guy got the treatment idea from a friend who was studying tissue regeneration in amphibians.