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WorldWeird: The man who grew a finger

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  1.  (2038.1)
    • CommentAuthorPablo
    • CommentTimeApr 30th 2008
     (2038.2)
    Wow. Amazing.
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      CommentAuthorRabbit
    • CommentTimeApr 30th 2008
     (2038.3)
    That.... is effing cool.

    My god, I'm eloquent.
  4.  (2038.4)
    Looks like the future might just be on its way...
  5.  (2038.5)
  6.  (2038.6)
    Ye gods! I can't think of anything else to say! But this rocks!
    • CommentAuthorSolario
    • CommentTimeApr 30th 2008
     (2038.7)
    I wonder if it could have an effect on regrowing brain cells. That would be neat.
  8.  (2038.8)
    Bah. Soon this will turn up in my inbox under EXTRA CELLULAR MATRIX 5 FOOT SCHLONG.
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      CommentAuthorAlan Tyson
    • CommentTimeApr 30th 2008
     (2038.9)
    Solario - the question is, if you re-grew damaged parts of the brain, would it affect your mental state in a noticeable way?
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      CommentAuthorNygaard
    • CommentTimeApr 30th 2008
     (2038.10)
    Artemis - I'm not sure you'd want to stimulate brain tissue to grow this way - If I'm not mistaken, brains and other nerve tissue do not normally divide and grow.

    But if an extracellular matrix could force it to do so despite everything, I'm sure everyone would be very excited to see what it turned into. Volunteers? :)
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      CommentAuthorFerburton
    • CommentTimeApr 30th 2008
     (2038.11)
    If only doctor Conner had known the secret was in pig bladders... not lizards.
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      CommentAuthorScribe
    • CommentTimeApr 30th 2008
     (2038.12)
    Wow, there still might be hope that one day I can relive my twenties.
  13.  (2038.13)
    Neurons do divide and grow at various developmental stages; and they also have stages for pruning. Not sure if it would affect the neurons,though...sounds very, very neat.
  14.  (2038.14)
    four weeks?! When a friend did basically the same to his finger, it took a bit longer for that to heal, and that was with all the medicine being thrown at him AND the missing fingertip.

    I'm anxious to see how this works with bones and internal organs.
    • CommentAuthorjohnmuth
    • CommentTimeApr 30th 2008
     (2038.15)
    This story was actually in an issue of Esquire a few months ago -- I'll have to dig that issue out. It was really neat to read about. The one thing that the guy who grew his finger back said, was that the very tip of the finger was a little tougher than the rest of the skin and that it had a slight odor to it. (Pretty sure I'm remembering that correctly...Obviously for good press, they might be leaving those parts out.)

    Actually, and not to sideline this discussion, but that issue of Esquire also had some other interesting science things going on. One of them was a person using viruses to encode antibodies/viruses in hopes of using it to cure cancer and other diseases. Since viruses, have a much better and "natural way of invading cells than things that we've been able to come up with. The reason that story really stuck out to me, was because of the near identical idea used in I Am Legend.

    Neat stuff.
    • CommentAuthorKosmopolit
    • CommentTimeApr 30th 2008
     (2038.16)
    The guy claiming to have regrown his finger is the brother of the owner of the company which produces the product.

    I'm waiting for independent clinical tests.
  17.  (2038.17)
  18.  (2038.18)
    Hmm...the UK one is different from the one I read. Interesting.
    • CommentAuthorAnopheles
    • CommentTimeMay 6th 2008 edited
     (2038.19)
    @Artemis

    I'd imagine regrown parts of the brain would act differently, as the nueral pathways that one creates over a lifetime (and much of that in childhood) would not be there. New ones would form, given time. But the (seemingly) random pathways and associations that help form your personality would change, I'd think. I mean, people with neural damage can have quite abrupt and total changes of personality, tastes, etc.

    It might depend on what part of the brain was regrown/replaced. Makes a good argument for a long-term brain structure memory back-up to avoid that sort of thing.
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      CommentAuthorJoe Paoli
    • CommentTimeMay 27th 2008 edited
     (2038.20)
    All the debunking of the original story seemed like good analysis and I was ashamed that I bought the original story unquestioningly, but:

    CNN is reporting about a soldier who has undergone a procedure using said 'pixie dust' to regrow a finger lost a year ago.

    It's the same stuff or similar - the article mentions that it comes from pigs.

    The article also mentions earlier trials on a dog that actually regrew a working uterus.

    I'll be watching for follow up with great interest.

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