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Scientists Transplant Functional Eyes On the Tails of Tadpoles

Posted by samzenpus on from the because-they-can dept.

New submitter physlord writes in with a story about tadpoles with eyes on their tails. "Using embryos from the African clawed frog (Xenopus), scientists at Tufts' Center for Regenerative and Developmental Biology were able to transplant eye primordia—basically, the little nubs of flesh that will eventually grow into an eye—from one tadpole's head to another's posterior, flank, or tail....Amazingly, a statistically significant portion of the transplanted one-eyes could not only detect LED changes, but they showed learning behavior when confronted with electric shock."

4 of 85 comments (clear)

  1. Scientists did WHAT!?! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    To summarize:

    Scientists removed the eyes from a tadpole and attached those eyes to another tadpole's ass, then shocked it to see if it could learn to see with it's ass. Hilarity ensued.

  2. Gives rise to a new expresssion... by Starteck81 · · Score: 4, Funny

    "I'm a mom, I have eyes in the back of my ass." -Ms. Tadpole

    --
    "There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order." -Ed H
  3. Cue the puns by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

    Sh*tty outlook on life.
    Hindsight is 20/20.
    Eyes in the back of their heads.

    Did I miss any?

  4. Re: Great time to be a blind tadpole by jcoy42 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Where the hell is the human medical technology?

    I don't know about you, but I'd just assume pass on grafting eyeballs onto my bum TYVM.

    --
    Never trust an atom. They make up everything.