The ability to regrow body parts is dormant in mammals, not lost
nryoo
165 points
57 comments
June 20, 2026
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Discussion Highlights (9 comments)
anticensor
The trick is to make regeneration fast enough to heal the wound without making fast enough to cause cancer. Maybe even supported by provisional fibrosis.
ranger_danger
Wasn't this proven many years ago by a random guy who used a "extra-cellular matrix" of stem cells to regrow his severed finger, nail and all? Found it: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7354458.stm
stevenwoo
I’m surprised this does not mention humans can grow back the tips of their fingers (past the white part of cuticle) https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2013/06/10/1903854... Supposed to be only kids but I’ve chopped off a few mm by accident it came back as an adult or I can’t tell the difference.
csr86
Retina is a good example of this. Zebrafish can regrow damaged retina, but while mammals have the same stem cells (Muller glia), they dont repair the retina, but form scar tissue. There is a lot of research and I think they have managed to modify rat genome, so that their retina has showns some repair abilities. The problem is that it often causes tumors. I have other retina permanently damaged, and suffer from double vision when looking small objects like text.
buddhistdude
Maybe that's what Jesus used on the people that he healed
david-gpu
Not a single mention of the work on limb regeneration by Professor Michael Levin's lab at Tufts? https://as.tufts.edu/biology/tufts-center-regenerative-and-d...
NotGMan
In a study they figured out that organs seem to have an electrical potential range as a signature/command for stem cells for which organ to build and where. In a frog they were able to grow legit eyes in the gut just by artificialy inducing a certain voltage in that area. No need for any cell transplantations: the voltage really seems to be the only signal needed. This might also be how it might be done in the future in humans: block scar tissue then induce voltage with the signature of the organ you wish to regrow. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22159581/
gste
It's just hidden by a feature flag. (Probably for a good reason)
kittikitti
I'm hoping that this can be applied to routine genital mutilation in humans that are often done near birth and without consent.