Comment by ranger_danger
4 hours ago
Wasn't this proven many years ago by a random guy who used a "extra-cellular matrix" of stem cells to regrow his severed finger, nail and all?
Found it: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7354458.stm
4 hours ago
Wasn't this proven many years ago by a random guy who used a "extra-cellular matrix" of stem cells to regrow his severed finger, nail and all?
Found it: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7354458.stm
No, the end of your finger just can grow back. https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2013/06/10/1903854...
Dude's brother had him throw his product on the finger as it did so, definitely an astute marketing trick. https://www.theguardian.com/science/2008/may/01/finger.claim
I recall reading a similar story with powdered lizard. Also just a fingertip.
"I don't know how it works, so it must be fake news."
To be fair, the person being skeptical is just a surgeon, this is not a peer-reviewed study or anything actually scientific.
Your NPR link even shows that scientists realize there are still unknowns:
> "We think that nail stem cells may a have a special function to induce the whole regeneration process, including nerve attraction and growth of the bone," Ito say.
A cursory search seems to say that typical regrowth of a nail takes 4-6 months, but Spievak claimed his only took 4 weeks.
Can we say definitively that his "pixie dust" had nothing to do with it? I don't think so. Can we say it did have something to do with it? Also unknown... but the answer right now IMO certainly isn't a scientific "no."