#TIL: Young children (up until the age of about 7 - 11) can regenerate their fingertips.
This is from “We Are Electric” by Sally Adee, which is all about the body’s bioelectric code. Apparently electrical fields and electrical charges are the software to the hardware that is our DNA.
The fingertip regeneration was discovered by researchers investigating how salamanders regenerate limbs. Of course it’s not something you can easily test, but there are enough people who grew up without easy access to medical care that this is a known fact.
@SallyStrange @bookstodon True. I had the tip of my finger guillotined in a screen door when I was six. It grew back although not exactly in line with where it should have.
@SallyStrange @bookstodon Robert Becker made the same claim in The Body Electric (1985). It was a pop sci best seller but to the best of my knowledge it was never accepted by the scientific community.
@Cyrus @bookstodon Which, that kids regrow fingertips? I can’t verify it myself, but the book does provide a wealth of information showing how recent discoveries (and older, forgotten ones) make this a plausible thing for our bodies to do. The history of bioelectricity is fraught with con artists and fakers, but in this book I’ve found reason to think it’s an idea whose time has come.
