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Scientists Discover New Clues To Regeneration: How Flatworms Regrow Heads

Posted by samzenpus on from the two-heads-are-better-than-none dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Regeneration is one of the most useful skills that an organism can possess. Lizards can regrow their tails and starfish can regrow and entire part of themselves if they're cut to pieces. Yet scientists have long wondered why some creatures possess this ability while others don't. That's why they decided to examine the process of regeneration, looking at the masters of this particular adaptation: flatworms."

13 of 76 comments (clear)

  1. uh huh by MickyTheIdiot · · Score: 3, Funny

    Matt Smith is pleased.

  2. "Regeneration is one of the most useful skills" by Joining+Yet+Again · · Score: 2

    really? Cool, certainly, but it seems there hasn't been a need to evolve the skill in many species.

    1. Re:"Regeneration is one of the most useful skills" by Nrrqshrr · · Score: 2

      Well, evolution at work, I guess. if you'r stupid enough to lose your head, you probably shouldn't regrow it.

    2. Re:"Regeneration is one of the most useful skills" by SJHillman · · Score: 2

      I think he just picked a poor way of saying "if it was THAT useful, then we'd see regeneration-capable species outsurviving non-capable species". Since we don't see regeneration-capable species drastically outperforming non-capable species in the survival game, then it suggests that regeneration isn't the survival superpower that Wolverine would have us believe.

      Or, as you said, he could just be anthropomorphizing evolution. Evolution hates when you do that.

  3. Paywall ugh by earlzdotnet · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Article is paywalled. I can get it on "readcube" for either $5 or $10. Or I can get it in a sane format (PDF) for $32. ORRR I can pay a lowly $200 to "subscribe to Nature" for some amount of time. And companies wonder why people pirate their material

  4. which is the "real" starfish by callmebill · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Suppose you could cut a starfish into 5 segments, and they could each regenerate the missing 4. Which is the real one? How much of a body can one replace before it's a different body?

    1. Re:which is the "real" starfish by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      The original conception was not cars, but the Ship of Theseus.

      It's mostly about how we define identity and doesn't really have an answer.

    2. Re:which is the "real" starfish by camperdave · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I wonder if any of the regenerated worms maintain the learned behavior.

      Yes, they can.

      --
      When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
    3. Re:which is the "real" starfish by osu-neko · · Score: 2

      The original conception was not cars, but the Ship of Theseus.

      It's mostly about how we define identity and doesn't really have an answer.

      It has an answer, just not one most people are looking for. If you want to know which ship is Theseus' ship, go ask the Athenian Port Authority. Property is a legal concept, and they're the authorities -- they can give you the definitive answer, and can't possibly be wrong, because they determine the right answer by virtue of their authority and what it means for it to be "his" ship.

      (Despite what it looks like, this is not actually dodging the question. Rather, it's making a point about it. Property is a "legal fiction", it's an abstraction of a particular sort. Identity is also an abstraction... people are only flustered by the Ship of Theseus if they mistakenly think otherwise.)

      --
      "Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies."
  5. Flatworms? by TheCarp · · Score: 2

    Please. Flatworms are great but plants.... plants are the champions here. Cut them off at the base, and they regrow from their roots. Cut off a branch and keep it from drying out, and it will regrow roots. Cut off leaves, it grows more, cut branches, it grows more.

    Cut a flatworm up, you get more of the same. Cut a plant, and it will not just regrow....it will actually grow more limbs than you cut off. Wake me up when you cut a lizards tail off and he grows 6 more tails in response.

    --
    "I opened my eyes, and everything went dark again"
  6. New head by Sponge+Bath · · Score: 4, Funny

    Maybe John Wayne Bobbitt could benefit?

  7. Evolution & scarring by Valdrax · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Actually, it's more like the skill was lost in favor of one that was considered far more useful for survival -- inflammation and scarring.

    Scarring stops bleeding and infection far faster than regeneration can and is a vital advantage in quick and dirty wound recovery. Scarring comes about because of a mutation that allows collagen to cross-link and build quicker scaffolding to seal the wound, but it comes at the cost of not being able to regrow tissues in the now "paved over" area. In the wild, this gave our distant mammalian ancestors the valuable ability to just kind of "write-off" the area and get up and going as fast as possible and avoid being preyed upon in a moment of weakness.

    We may dismiss scarring today as ugly and wasteful of an opportunity to be made whole again, but without it, we probably wouldn't exist today.

    --
    If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
  8. What a way to cure a hangover by Alain+Williams · · Score: 2

    Cut off your head & grow a new one. Cool!