A Miracle of Science

You, like me, probably saw in the news a day or so back a story about a paralysed man helped to walk again.

To be honest I didn't really give it much of a second thought until I sort of watched by accident (I couldn't find anything else more interesting to have on at the time) the Panorama programme on it.

What an eye opener!

It probably won't appeal to everyones interest but a british doctor came up with the ingenious idea of repairing the spinal cord by using nerves from your nose - the bits that help you to smell.

A wonderful and insightful solution and one that no doubt will when fully developed change for the better thousands of people's lives who have been confined never to walk again.

An hour long documentary on iplayer for anybody interested -

(All involved with the resarch have waived their rights to patents and a certain fortune - can you imagine any americans doctors ever doing that!)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b04mm8zl/panorama-to-walk-again

I read a little in the paper the other day and it is fantastic what has been achieved, a step in the right direction (no pun intended!), hopefully this will help towards the research to help those who are paralysed to walk again!

Saw it on the news yesterday. A British doctor to boot. In the medicinal field it is on a par with Neil Armstrong landing on the moon.

Reebok Trotter wrote:Saw it on the news yesterday. A British doctor to boot. In the medicinal field it is on a par with Neil Armstrong landing on the moon.

"One small step for man,one giant leap for mankind",is even more relevant in this case.

Very true is that. The good Doctor reckons all major spinal surgery will result in full mobility in fifty years time. It sounds a lifetime away but in the sixties the very thought of a total heart transplant was considered a fairy tale. Christian Barnard had a vision and he proved the experts wrong and he wasn't American or British.
Great pioneers come from all walks of life.

I have just spent the last two hours watching this documentary. Fascinating stuff if I may say so. Hipster will find it very interesting whereas Magoo will mark them down as nutters.

I think it's great that something positive has come out of stem cell research and cell cloning which has been so maligned by some religious groups on supposedly ethical grounds. Don't think this particular application will benefit many people but in theory, the basic procedure could be applied to many more circumstances and would eventually become cost-effective if the volume gets high enough.

I'm already wondering if I could grow a new penis as this ones starting to lose the battle with gravity...?

wanderlust wrote:

I'm already wondering if I could grow a new penis as this ones starting to lose the battle with gravity...?

Put me down for that treatment as well.