MEDIC: Regrow limbs with pixie dust?

[Gargoyle]

MEDIC! Pixie dust (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7354458.stm) regrows finger, soon to be tested by military.

[primesuspect]

That's pretty incredible.

[QCH]

WOW... I hope it's as good as that article claims!!!

[Winfrey]

More like "Wolverine" dust. Holy crap an example of regeneration!

[GHoosdum]

I will never see Peter Pan the same way again.

Yeah, that's ground up pig bladder that Tinkerbell is sprinkling all over you. Now fly!

[Zanthian]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/may/01/finger.claim

[TiberiusLazarus]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/may/01/finger.claim

"But we are very uninformed about how all of this works. There's a lot more that we don't know than we do know."


Kay said there was "no evidence" that ACell had manipulated the regenerative capabilities of the human body.


"There's no clinical evidence to support the claims," he said. "It really is junk science.

Does every new possible scientific breakthrough have to start in a laboratory with decades of clinical research behind it? If we know so little about the human body than how do we know that this isn't possible?

The whole thing does seem rather remarkable and hard to believe, but sometimes the possible benefits of continuing with a new idea vastly out weigh the the negatives.

[airbornflght]

Well, that's exactly what science is. Testing, analysis, more testing, testing testing, testing. Until enough evidence can be compiled to reach a conclusion to either prove yourself wrong or else to decide that one's hypothesis may be correct.

It's great that it works (if it does, I'm skeptical), but what would be better is how and why it works. Without that it is nothing more than snake oil. "Sprinkle this on it, all your problems will melt away."

[shwaip]

MAN DOWN

[Lincoln]

OOPS (http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/may/03/medicalresearch.health), zat wuz not medicine.