Miraculous Fingertip Regrowing Powder Strikes Again | Hacker News Reader

Miraculous Fingertip Regrowing Powder Strikes Again

singularityhub.com

18 pointskkleiner9 comments

I lost the tip of one of my fingers when I was young, to a slamming door. It grew back itself, without any magic powders.

"Little pieces (16mm or so) are possible, but most of our wildest dreams about regenerating amputated body parts are still a long ways off."

I just had to measure it when I read that. Funnily enough, the mark that this wound left starts at about 15 to 17mm from the tip. I remember I lost my whole fingernail but somehow it grew back perfectly shaped.

That's amazing, I didn't know that was even possible. 1.6cm is huge!

Depends on the age. Very young children can regenerate fingertips. That's about it, though.

I was about 10 years old, if I remember it right. Also note that the door completely missed the bone, although I remember being able to see a small part of it.

Thankfully there are now some door safety devices on the market, for example:

http://www.fingersafe.com

It might not be able to regrow the limbs today, but it is nice to know that somebody in the medical industry is actually working on improving our lives through new innovations.

Far too often it looks like they are happy just getting rent and doing a few modifications to existent patented medicine so that they can get another 20 years monopoly.

I voted this up after reading the first half - I disagree with the second half. It might appear that way sometimes, but it's wrong - pharmaceutical companies do a mix of billions of dollars in research (most of which never pans out), and also provide exits/buy-outs for smaller labs who make a discovery, which stimulates innovation as well. Some rent seeking, yes, too much, maybe, but pharmaceuticals have been on balance one of the most wealth creating industries over the last 20 years.

Azithromicin alone was worth the $120 before it went generic, and now you can get it for dirt cheap. People laugh and joke about things like Viagra, but it's helped a lot of people, especially as we're all living longer now. All sorts of other things. Pharmaceutical and medical research companies are amazing.

Can I regrow my dick?

Sorry, not yet. That's a pretty tough one to do, from what I've read.

But given the stories I've heard about some angry partners... I hope it will be possible eventually. :S

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