Comments on: Newt healing factors unaffected by age and injury

By: Jon F

Jon F — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 13:22:00 +0000

I honestly can’t believe no one made this comment yet – especially considering the Holy Grail reference you included, Ed, but… from this one could presume that if one were turned into a newt one could have… got better?

By: Emmy

Emmy — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 21:22:45 +0000

I was wondering the same thing as jdmimic, although I assume that their vital organs do not regenerate the same as the limbs / eyes. Now, that would be incredible! Although I object more to useless studies than I do ones that can save people’s lives, keeping these types of animals in lousy lab enclosures their whole lives is unthinkable. I don’t care if they are given anesthetics. To evolve as an aquatic animal and to live in such sterile, dismal conditions is unacceptable. At the very least they should give these poor critters to a good wildlife center after a year of this torture.

By: jdmimic

jdmimic — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 18:09:30 +0000

So if their regenerative properties don’t decrease with age, what keeps them from being effectively immortal (outside disease, predation, or accident of course)? Also, how does repeated regenerations affect their fecundity and would this possibly prevent them from regenerating continuously in the wild?

By: Adriana

Adriana — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 13:53:06 +0000

Great blog post, Ed, thanks! A very interesting story, and an intriguing possibility that limb regeneration may not be as perfect as lens regeneration because of exposure to the environment. It would be great if one could design an experiment to test limb regeneration in a super-controlled environment, sort of a “bubble” for newts.

By: MT-LA

MT-LA — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 16:09:09 +0000

@ Lazzarro Spallanzini: You’re a lizard, aren’t you? I mean…
L = 3
I = 2
Z = 3(!)
A = 4
R = 2
So you just realized at the very end that adding a couple of D’s do your name would be totally too obvious. You’re not fooling anyone!