How We Heal | We’re Wired That Way

which superpower would you pick if you
could choose only one x-ray vision
invisibility teleportation
have you considered regeneration animals
can do it so why can’t humans or can we
I’m Erica Bergman and we’re wired that
way
every year deer shed their antlers which
are made of bones skin and nerves and
then grow them back again for rutting
season some flatworms
can grow an entire new body from one
single cell one cell how does a tiny
cell know how to make a whole flat warm
body there’s a type of salamander the
axolotl who can not only regrow its tail
it can also recreate eyes its spinal
cord and even parts of its brain its
brain
think about that for a moment that’s
basically the best zombie apocalypse
survival skill I can think of it’s cool
I can make more right well not really
but kids can do something like that did
you know that if a child is a fingertip
their body can replace it
scientists believe that stem cells from
the fingernail may pitch in to stimulate
growth I chopped off a bit of mine with
a hacksaw there’s no nerves left but my
fingertip did come back so if I cube
loses the tip of their finger it may
grow out without a doctor’s help cool
but scientists think the reason our
regenerative talents seem to stop there
is because of evolution and natural
selection regeneration can take a lot of
time leaving the body exposed to
infection blood loss or vulnerable
predators healing is the quick fix your
wound is rapidly closed off protecting
our systems from greater threats and
allowing us to move on some scientists
think the reason we carry girl limbs
like we regrow skin is not that we
actually can’t but that we don’t we have
the genes to do it they just don’t work
the way they do in animals so if we can
just find a way to switch back on those
genes that lie dormant within
maybe we can harness this ability
imagine the possibilities if we could
replace body parts that have failed us
in some way just by throwing a new one
our mechanical technology has developed
some pretty fantastic prosthetic limbs
and soon we’ll have prosthetics that
patients can control using just their
mind but there are bio printers like 3d
printers but with biological materials
that have already successfully printed
skin that could be used for skin grafts
imagine what it’ll be like when we
figure out how to print replacement arm
legs organs but even then we’d still
need surgeries and they carry their own
risks the ultimate advancement would be
to find a way to get your body to custom
make your own replacement parts designed
for you by you and scientists are
working on that right figuring out how
to harness the bioelectric signals that
tell ourselves when and what to grow if
they can get a frog to grow six legs
which they can eventually they should be
able to get a human being to grow one or
two all right and once we figure out how
to control ourselves who knows how far
we can go with that invisibility
teleportation we are wired that way now
we just have to figure out how to make
it happen we want to know what you think
sound off in the comments below
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