forum Ask me about science (preferably biology, including molecular and cellular bio)

Started May 11, 2018 by @WriterK1018

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I just graduated with a BS in Molecular and Cellular Biology, so if you have any scientist characters or anything like that or maybe you just have a question, I may be able to help.

Ok, so. I know that radiation can cause frogs to grow extra legs and stuff. Does the frog have to be unborn or can living long enough in radiation that's not immediately lethal cause that sort of mutation in adult frogs. Also, if so, could something like that happen to a person? If not is there any specific I don't know blood type? that a higher chance of surviving radiation poisoning?

Okay, so the frog thing. Any phenotype (that is, a physical trait) is set in stone almost always as soon as development is complete, so the physical changes would have to occur in a developing embryo/fetus/whatever. However, adult exposure may not be immediately lethal. It depends on the amount. What can happen with adult exposure is that there can be small, local changes, such as tumor growth or cell death. It can also effect the sex cells of the adult, which could in turn cause further mutations in the next generation.
This sort of thing is possible in humans. Humans won't grow extra limbs, but cancers are completely possible, and you could do something like that.
As far as blood type, there is a study from 2013 (Elahimanesh et al.) that shows that O+ blood is significantly less sensitive to radiation. A+ blood is significantly more sensitive to other blood types.

So there's all that, but this is all evidenced in the real world. In fiction, there is a suspension of disbelief, so feel free to play around with whatever, as long as you sell it to feel believable.

Ok thank you. This is really cool, thanks

I just graduated with a BS in Molecular and Cellular Biology, so if you have any scientist characters or anything like that or maybe you just have a question, I may be able to help.

Main characters both scientists. They created a prosthetic that gives you the ability to really grow your limbs. So let me explain you have two options one you can get a regular Prosthetic that’s essentially a robotic arm that works the same way as a regular arm and you can essentially spray paint skin on to it to make it look more human(iRobot for example). The other technology which is obviously more expensive is you have a robotic arm but with the technology it has a Synthetic robotic degradation process over the course of 8-14 months. The robotics and the synthetics essentially “guide “ the part. So while the person has a robotic arm, as the robotic and synthetic part degrades the biological part grows back. What are your thoughts? And any science behind it to have it make more sense?

Okay, so part of this will exist within the realm of "You break it, you buy it" so some of this will have to be made up, because the technology does not currently exist. That being said, let's talk about what is known.

Human limb regeneration is a hot topic within molecular biology right now. Other vertebrates (namely lizards and salamanders) are very efficient at regenerating lost limbs, but humans lack the ability to do so naturally. Humans do, however, have some remarkable natural regeneration abilities, such as the skin's ability to regenerate from wounds over and over again, albeit with some scarring, and the liver's ability to completely regenerate from the smallest fraction of itself.

There are surgical implants and screws that are degradable within the human body. These exist, so you may be able to make parts of your prosthetic out of these materials (just a quick google search for degradable surgical implants could give you some info about what is out there). These could even be used as scaffolding for bone growth.

As for other regeneration, skin regenerates easily. Other underlying tissues are what's keeping current studies from moving forward. During development, we have a switch for limb growth that gets sort of "turned off", but this can be turned on again in other animals; it just hasn't happened in humans yet.

So, what I suggest, since you'll have to stretch reality in this case (maybe one day it'll be true), is have the more complex prosthetic be an implant, and have surgeons reactivate some of the cells at the amputation site to become stem cells again(specifically multi-potent is probably what you're looking for), which could grow along the prosthetic, and replace the pieces over time. There could be several check-ins by the doctors over time to make sure the proper signalling molecules (chemicals that help your body know where to put fingers and where to put an elbow) are in the right places. There are several signalling molecules involved in limb formation.

The biggest issue is not growing each of the tissue types, but making them grow together in proportion to each other.

Like I said, a lot of this is sort of up in the air right now, but there is some cool research about it. If you want some more info, try looking at stuff about salamanders (there's an interesting idea about retaining juvenile features as a marker for potential regeneration out there).

I hope this helps. It's a developing field, and I'm drawing mostly from my memory of limb formation in vertebrates, so regeneration may work somewhat differently, but the essential processes should be about the same. Anyway, this got long, so happy writing!

@WriterK1018 thank you so much! This is exactly what I was looking for this will definitely get me started moving forward. The main reason I was asking was because from the scientists point of view obviously they would have some evidence and some notes to prove their work. The check ups that you mention it would definitely help well Along with the technology from the degrading prosthetics that you mentioned so that would probably be included in my “scientist” notes as to how they came to inventing this technology.

Side note, from your perspective, if you had the tech would you bring someone back from the dead? Their conscience is still present but you have the tech to grow a body and implant the consciousness. Would you do it, why or why not?

Oooh interesting. Personally, no, but there would probably be some disagreement among researchers. I say no, because I believe that meddling in the line between death and life would lead to unforeseen circumstances, including maybe even devaluing of life as it is (like, I have a bad knee, why not just make a new body?). But like I said, that's me personally.