• Question: Can You Create A Monster Like Frankenstein Did ? And if You Can How ??

    Asked by 07gillardjen to David, Helen, Ian, rhysphillips, Sarah on 22 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Helen Fletcher

      Helen Fletcher answered on 21 Jun 2011:

      We often use donor organs from road traffic victims etc. to replace organs in living people. On a small scale this is exactly what Dr Frankenstein was doing!! I think you could probably replace every part of the body except the brain (?). I don’t think the problem is the brain itself, but the wiring of all the nerves to be able to get your monster to breathe, move etc.

    • Photo: Rhys Phillips

      Rhys Phillips answered on 22 Jun 2011:

      Um no I don’t think so – it’s probably not a good idea to go around making monsters anyway!

    • Photo: Ian van der Linde

      Ian van der Linde answered on 22 Jun 2011:

      You can cross breed animals naturally to create hybrids, like lions+tigers=ligers, donkey+zebra=zeedonk, and porcupine+hippo=porcopotomus. You can also splice genes together (like the glowing pig in the news a year or two ago that was created by cross pig with jellyfish). It would be hard to cross animals surgically because animal bodies reject foreign flesh, so the grafted limbs wouldn’t be accepted. That’s why organ transplants are so difficult, and a properly matched donor is needed.

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