Dog's Head kept alive without Body

Discussion in 'World of SPAM' started by pandahorde, Jun 7, 2008.

  1. pandahorde

    pandahorde Level IV

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  2. Adam

    Adam Level III

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    Lol, its like futurama! The little heads in the jars... Thats pretty cool.
     
  3. fail

    fail Level IV

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    I'm sorry, but thats Just Sick. Why would they do that to an animal?
     
  4. vinceraf

    vinceraf Level III

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    Well, dunno if it's true... anyway similar experiments were made also in the past, during the Cold War and before.
    For example a scientist in URSS was able to "attach" a dog's head to the body on another dog... he lived with two heads (they did different things) for some weeks. He had to stop the experiment anyway... luckly ._."
    Instead, in the USA, a scientist brought back to life several dogs... but only few of them survive for more than few hours :/ (and with many problems)

    I can't suffer this kind of experiments anyway... :nope:
     
  5. Commy

    Commy Moderator
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    Possibly for human use if proven successful?

    Hrm....it sure looked real. But I'm a little skeptical. Given that the dog's head was detached at the neck, and was lying on the table, how would you move your head? In the last few seconds of the video, the dog lifted it's head a bit off the table. It shouldn't have sufficient muscles to jerk like that.
    But it is pretty cruel. The dog's head would not be able to survive for a long time, and if it was real, must have been in some pain. And the brain needs glucose to survive,the video showed only oxygenated blood being pumped.

    I think wikipedia gives a pretty good explanation of it, although there's a striking picture in there not shown in the film.
    It did remind me of that chicken that lived for a few years without a head. :)
     
  6. christinemarie

    christinemarie Level II

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    i don't really see how this could help humans. the only possible scenario is that if someone was beheaded they could keep the head alive, but then they wouldn't be able to reattach it successfully and there would be too much blood loss for the body to function.
    it's interesting, but if true it's also really disgustingly cruel and sad. but like you said, it could just be another internet prank. like those bottled kittens or whatever a few years back, hah.
     
  7. Virre

    Virre Level IV

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    Well, either that or people who have lost function of the neck and down. In these cases, we would (assuming this video is not a prank) be able to detach the head from the injured body and reattach it on a fully functional body. This would mean, of course, that the person would have to live as only a head until a suitable body is found, but it would still be possible. If people donate their organs, it's not unlikely that they could donate their whole bodies if they die as well. It may seem morbid and Frankenstein-ish, but it would be very helpful to the people with this handicap.
     
  8. Phee

    Phee Moderator
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    Organ donation is very different from donating entire body parts. Organ needs only to be sutured in , replacing the old organ. But body parts? Reattaching a person's own finger is complicated enough. Obviously it is a perfect fit in terms of size and proportion and ratios, but the body still needs to form new nerve pathways and heal torn tissues etc. But can you imagine trying to sew someone ELSE's finger on? it's be a nightmare, even if the blood types matched perfectly. The body would probably reject it. I can't even think of it being possible for the body to accept it.

    Now can you imagine trying to attach another BODY? In my opinion it's entirely impossible, not even taking into account the vital functions of the heart.

    But it'd make an interesting movie. :)
     
  9. christinemarie

    christinemarie Level II

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    yup, and then on top of that try to imagine the physical therapy you'd need to go through to even teach your brain to control the parts of your new body.
    would that even be possible? for the brain to connect with a completely new system?
     
  10. Virre

    Virre Level IV

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    While I don't think we'll be seeing it very soon (or ever because of some ethical dilemmas), I don't reject it as impossible. The idea is to keep the head alive by pumping in blood (among other things) through a machine that acts like the heart. And you do the same thing with the body. Then you would have to attach the head a bit at a time. I'm thinking in terms of either genetically engineered cells or nanobots (or whatever they're called). While it might sound like a science fiction movie, think of where we are today. The mobile phone was invented with inspiration from Star Trek. As we speak, there are being pills developed that will be able to prolong the avarage lifespan and slow aging, meaning we could become hundreds, even thousands of years old. Animal tests have been done and soon human testing wil begin. We have screens that interact with our touch, our computers are able to process huge amounts of data. Heck, we even know how to drive our cars on water or air.
    No, this does not seem like science fiction to me, it seems like future science. :)
     
  11. Phee

    Phee Moderator
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    I suppose anything is possible, but it just seems like fantasy to me.

    Then again, that's what they said about airplanes and cars too, huh?
     
  12. christinemarie

    christinemarie Level II

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    kind of OT, but why on earth are they developing pills to make you live longer? what is the human race's obsession with never dying? christ.
     
  13. Virre

    Virre Level IV

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    Here's the link to the article:
    And here's a TED talk which explains the problems and solutions for the living that long.
     
  14. Avandia

    Avandia Level III

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    Actually.... I don't really know a lot about it... but I live in Arizona, where we have one of two cryogenic labs in the US. And while I didn't want to watch the posed video.. they do have actual severed human heads in cryostasis here, so one would presume if they can do it to humans, they can do something similar to dogs. I don't believe that the heads are actually "alive" so to speak of, so it's not the same thing I guess (as I said I didn't watch the clip) but they ARE doing this in hopes of advancing science and to one day "re-animate" these people. I thought any sports fans may know about Ted Williams, the biggest case about cryogenics that I've heard. You can link it to stem-cell research as well. If you want to read more about it in detail, I found some links. (I dated a nerd who knows everything about anything!)


    http://www.alcor.org/AboutCryonics/index.html

    http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news ... onics.html

    http://www.cryonicssociety.org/articles ... liams.html