The weekly newsletter for Fed2 by ibgames

EARTHDATE: August 9, 2009

Official News page 10


REAL LIFE NEWS: GROW YOUR OWN TEETH

by Hazed

If a child loses a tooth in a fight, it's no big deal - a new one will grow sooner or later. But once the baby teeth have been replaced by adult teeth, that's it; there won't be any more.

At least, not till now. A Japanese team has come up with a method to regrow lost teeth and they've demonstrated it using rats. Tokyo's Research Institute for Science and Technology have been experimenting with organ regrowth for years, and finally their experiments are a success.

What's more, these regrown teeth are fluorescent.

To make the glowing regenerated teeth, the team first created a "germ" - like a tooth seed from which the tooth can grow. They made it glow so they could track its development. Then they transplanted it into a rat's jawbone. once it had grown, they tested it and found it was essentially as strong as natural teeth, and what's more it was able to grow nerves just like a naturally developed tooth.

Not only would this be great news for anybody who loses their teeth, because of decay or accident, but it also leads onto being able to replace more complex organs in the future.

And lets not forget the fashion implications of glowing teeth. We've had gold teeth, and teeth implanted with diamonds - not to mention the iron teeth of the Bond villain, Jaws - but how about teeth that glow? It could be a new trend.

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