Could a brain be kept alive independently of a body?
Humanity is inching ever closer to Futurama-esque heads-in-jars.
Asked by: Jackie McLean, Glasgow
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Gruesomely, the answer is yes – at least for a while.
As long ago as 1925, Dr Sergei Briukhonenko of the Chemical-Pharmaceutical Institute in Moscow showed that the severed heads of animals could be kept alive for several hours if connected up to a crude version of what became the life-saving heart-lung machine.
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Authors
Robert MatthewsPhysicist
Robert is a science writer and visiting professor of science at Aston University.
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