Watch: Why can't we regrow our body parts like these creatures can?
What if we could get back a missing limb by waiting it out until it grows again?
Creatures like the jellyfish, corals and some others may seem much lower on the evolutionary scale than humans, but they have something we don’t. They’re immortal.
The snail fur, for example, can live forever in theory. For, it will never suffer from age-related deterioration.
Then there are animals like the Mexican salamander, which has the unique ability to regrow its limbs, and even produce replacement organs should the need arise. Exploring this ability, the video above from the YouTube channel LifeNoggin asks why humans can’t do it too.
As it turns out, humans can. But only during their time in the womb.
And, of course, don’t forget the regenerative powers manifested in healing from wounds and rebuilding impressively at the cellular level.
As for regrowing entire limbs, though, science may hold an answer in the future. It may be a matter of providing an alternative set of genetic instructions to our cells to switch on our possibly latent regenerative abilities.
As they say, that’s an ability we might give an arm and a leg for.
