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Withered brain cells restored (in monkeys, anyway)
lisa writes "You've heard the old theory that we lose 10,000 neurons a day after the age of 20. Well, that may not be true. Scientists revived and restored aged brain cells thought to be dead in a group of old monkeys. " Interesting-very succesful tests-we'll see how the human trials go.
Dr. Strauss sayz I should rite down evrything that happens too me from now on....
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Ah... I can just see it now. Imagine, if we can someone revive or reactivate dead brain cells, what kind of world would we have?
:)
- Farrah Fawcett would finally get that Nobel Prize for her work on superstring theory that clearly shows the interrelations between the weak force and this year's hemlines.
- AOL becomes the Internet center for reasonable discussion and carefully crafted thought.
- Oprah's latest book club selection: "The Meditations Of Marcus Aurelius".
- Network executives realize their impact on civilization, build an advanced spacecraft, and then hurl themselves into the sun. "Crusade" is renewed for four and half more seasons.
- Cheech & Chong for President!
Let's hope they actually get this work in humans. I recommend that they begin testing immediately. They could begin testing on lawyers - no one will bother to stop them, although one never knows if the data collected from them will be applicable to humans...
No lawyers were harmed in this post. I'll try harder next time.
Excellent.
There's hope for me yet.
But do "revived" brain cells help you do useful things? Or, perhaps, are those simply "idiot" cells that the more advanced brain cells have killed out of mercy? It sure would be disappointing to go get my "brain cell revival" treatment, and find out that those were the brain cells that thought BASIC was cool.
Or maybe those are "evil" cells that want me to kill and devour my roommates?
314-15-9265
Okay- let's put a few of the stories over the past few weeks together. We have this story, on brain regeneration and reinvigoration. We have the story you just pointed out- spinal cord regeneration. And we have successful head transplants on monkeys- the central drawback of which is that the spine is still severed. Guess what all this equals? Almost certainly increased life spans for rich people. Within 10 years, we're going to be dealing with moral questions that we never even dreamed of before. Scary and wonderful stuff....