The Reanimation of Dead Tissue
Now, the Chinese hypothesised, thousands of years before the dawn of galvanism (i.e known today as electrophysiology) that the body was a vast chemical engine, and that energy flowed through the body to create movement. Their hypothesis at the time was that if someone was suffering an ailment that various needles could be pin-pointed at certain areas to re-direct the flow of electrical current, thus healing the ill. This practice still goes on in some places around the world, but for many years the idea that the body was an 'engine' was scoffed by Western science.
The idea of creating a life is hard to pin-point in history and literature alike, but the earliest reference to using science of any kind as a means to was written in the Greek texts of Paracelsus, an alchemist who was branded a sorcerer, who claimed, which sounds perposterous these days, that he created a man in a tube, which he deemed a "homunculus", by using semen and eggs from a female and it fertilised in the tube and grew to be a person 12" in length----ironically in this day and age with "test tube" babies, the idea of it all, is not as far-fetched as it seems, as possibly the whole idea of fertilising eggs and then freezing them to be injected into women might have branched from the idea of the "humunculus".
'Artificial' life has always been told in folk-lore, most famously, the Arabian Knights tale of the Golem, a creature made from clay and a magical ornament made the creature come to life, and would stop coming to life when the ornament was taken off it---much like a modern day robot run from batteries. Leonardo Da Vinci, ironically, was the very first man to create robots, by use of clock work engines and pulley's that would move arms inside the suit of armor of a knight.
In the 1780's and 90's a man by the name of Luigi Galvani directed a flow of electrical current through the bodies of dead animals, most notably frog legs, and saw how the limbs would move, and with more current, they would move even more. Galvani called this 'animal electricity', for he believed he found a new source of energy. Several other scientists at the time took it a step further, as they applied great electrical currents through the bodies of criminals that were executed---and to many gasps and freakish horror of many the bodies would 'rise up' and even yell and shake convulsively, until the electrical streams were cut off.
As you can see in this picture from the Victorian times, that 'galvanism' was deemed immoral and an abomination against God (see the demons around the 'reanimated corpse').
It was then hypothesised that if enough electrical current was directed into the brain of the deceased person(s) that the subject would be brought back from the dead. One of the many people who witnessed these exhibitions of science was Mary Shelley, who would later write the infamous Gothic-Horror novel Frankenstein, Or The Modern Prometheus in 1818, which was inspired by the thought of "reanimation, through galvanism," as well as various other influences of the times.
Cryobionics (also known as Cryogenics) is a method of trying to perserve cellular tissue by means of cold temperatures. There have been a few 'successes' in cryobionics but by and large, since the 1960's, the problem has still always been the same: all matters of life have water in their cells, and water expands when frozen, thus destroying the cells, thus no preservation of life.
Then there is genetics and the field of cloning, or even the gentic study of manipulating genes to 'perfect' an individual. Genetics was first hypothesised, believe it or not, by a monk/pea farmer named Gregor Mendel, who noted that inheritance patterns of certain traits in pea plants and showed that they could be described mathematically.
It has been proven in recent years that the DNA of a human being can be placed into the cell of an animal, and if breeded and born would be a man/animal, 90% man and 10% animal. Such ideas are considered blasphemous, and even in H.G. Well's time, who once wrote The Island of Dr. Moreau, was considered science-fiction and if possible, would be a great abomination; now it is possible.
These days, scientists are trying to 'bring back' extincy species of animal, most notably the Tasmanian Tiger and the Wooly Mammoth---but the question of whether or not dead tissue can be reanimated is still in question, and the scientific communities are split between in answers, some stating that they are so close to the answer, while others say it will not happen in our life time.
The two questions I ask is this:
1.) Is it possible for this to happen in our life-times, considering how far along we are in anatomy and genetics and science?
2.) Is it wrong to do so? If so, why?
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Originally Posted by "IRISH" RUFUS MURPHY
instead they could be creating stocks of tb antibodies i mean even illnesses that should be cured are still rife today to think thousands of people die from things sutch as tb it makes you wonder what in the name of god there doing with the money we donate in africa you have some of the poorest most vulnerable poeple on earth dying from STARVATION AND CURABLE DECIESES THAT WE HAVE THE BLOODY MEDICEN FOR but it COSTS to mutch it makes me want to spew my bloody gutts up i sware to god instead os these people doing what we want with are money they send MACHIENES into space let me to you what i think about that one there are a million moreSECRETS TO BE FOUND HERE ON EARTH THAN THERE EVER WILL BE UP THERE IN SPACE there is a saying you can put on SIENCE and its true BREAK A FEW EGGS TO MAKE AN OMLETT thats what they do they let innocent poeple all over the world die from cureable diceises that we have medicines for so they can send tin cans into space its a HOLY DISGRACE *BLESSES MY SELF* ime done. 