Topic: Check this out Stoney, regeneration.

[Sirgod]

http://www.physorg.com/news187879295.html

1 gene lost = 1 limb regained? Scientists demonstrate mammalian regeneration through single gene deletion
March 15, 2010

A quest that began over a decade ago with a chance observation has reached a milestone: the identification of a gene that may regulate regeneration in mammals. The absence of this single gene, called p21, confers a healing potential in mice long thought to have been lost through evolution and reserved for creatures like flatworms, sponges, and some species of salamander. In a report published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers from The Wistar Institute demonstrate that mice that lack the p21 gene gain the ability to regenerate lost or damaged tissue. 

The potential there is just amazing.

stephen

[knightstorm]

What's the catch?  We wouldn't have gained a gene that inhibits our ability to recover from injury unless it conferred some sort of competitive advantage.

[Nemesis]

What's the catch?  We wouldn't have gained a gene that inhibits our ability to recover from injury unless it conferred some sort of competitive advantage.

The lack could have been an advantage at some particular time and place.  Times change so do places.

I'd love to see a drug that could suspend that gene function in humans long enough to regenerate an injury. 

[stoneyface]

that is fantastic. i loved the article. thanks for the contribution!

[knightstorm]

The lack could have been an advantage at some particular time and place.  Times change so do places.

I'd love to see a drug that could suspend that gene function in humans long enough to regenerate an injury.

Or the gene could have some function that we don't know about.  For instance, the genes that cause some types of diseases can sometimes confer other advantages.

[FRA.E.Kehakoul_XC]

I think that gene is the jaded attempt of mother nature to prevent the world from overpopulating with  humans.,.and even with it...she failed.