NOSE GROWN ON FOREHEAD

Now, most of you have probably already heard of this news story but it is so weird and intriguing that it needs its own post. 

The story starts with a man in china who was in a traffic accident back in August 2012, this accident caused terrible damage to his nose. He then neglected nasal trauma treatment  which led to an infection that corroded the cartilage of his nose, making it almost impossible for surgeons to fix it. This is where this story takes a turn for the scientifically weird. So the surgeons decided to grow him a new nose, ON HIS FOREHEAD. The surgeons did this by placing a skin tissue expander on to his forehead, cutting it into a shape of a nose and then planting cartilage taken from his ribs.  The reason  they planted the nose on his forehead instead of somewhere less obvious is because forehead skin can be moved and keep its blood supply.

If the skin was to lose its blood supply it would simply die when it was transplanted. The skin is also a good match for nose skin.  So far the new nose is in good condition and the transplant surgery can be performed soon. 

This story is so intriguing for so many reasons, but by far the most intriguing of them is the realisation of how far science has come. We are able to understand the human body in so much detail that we can replicate body parts. Of course there are things we still don't understand about the human body, but imagine the progress in fifty years time. However there's still a part of me that feels that this sort of research is just like playing God, that's the only things that scares me about these stories. If given the chance, will science take things too far? what do you think?

as always, Seemal