[vixon (OP)]

I'm sure I read they want to make the cuts slow so the reconnecting of the neurons(nerves) are good.

A sharp sword, moving fast, can cut through stuff, because it only moves the line of atoms it cuts.

So wouldn't it be better to make the cuts as fast as possible? And don't they only make 1 big cut on the dead guy to obtain the body? - they can do the fast cut there for sure! And on the main guy can try and do the many cuts fast by hand or automated.

[Pecos_Bill]

Yes, the procedure is quite feasible. but first you must hang your sword on a sky hook in the midnight sun for 48 hours.  There are also anecdotal reports from some Norwegian investigators who hung the sword on the world ash tree in Midgard for nine days.

OR you can aso use a monatomic filament of metallic hydrogen.

Easy as pie. Go for it.

[RD]

Realistically the body-recipient will not be able to move their new life-support-system ...

"There is no evidence that the connectivity of cord and brain would lead to useful sentient or motor function following head transplantation," says Richard Borgens, director of the Center for Paralysis Research at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22530103.700-first-human-head-transplant-could-happen-in-two-years.html

[Pecos_Bill]

Since we are dealing in total science fiction here, why <<couldn't>> he be able to move? I have seen it myself in "The Day the Earth Stood Still"

I saw with my own 6 year old eyes when Klatuu (played by Michael Rennie) was gunned down graveyard dead, but Patricia Neal ran and told Gort - just as he was about to transmogrify her - "Klatuu varada Nikto!" then Gort went and policed up Klatuu's corpse and put it in that gizmo he had in the saucer. Presto Chango and Klatuu was back in harness doing his interstellar social work job.

So you see this head transplant is small beer for the likes of Klatuu and his robot Gort. We just need to find a way to phone them on interstellar 911.

[RD]

A "top of head" transplant has been done ...


skull.jpg (45.55 kB . 640x360 - viewed 3663 times)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-33017674

They just need to progress downwards  []

[Pecos_Bill]

Okey-doke.

The man in that picture had a skull and scalp transplant. They didn't do Jack to his central nervous system.

There are these things you learn about in Neuroanatomy class called the axons of the spinal thalamic tracts which are made up of long single axons which connect the thalamus to the efferent synapses of the peripheral nerves.

Those axons don't grow back. No mortal human being ever born of a human woman has ever had the slightest clue about how to connect them up. As proof there has never been a quadriplegic (or paraplegic) who got well and regained their function. That picture you showed is ALL rostral to any of the central nervous system. It doesn't amount to a lousy pinch of sour owl crud.

In short anybody who tries telling you that a head can be transplanted without the actual holy balm of Gilead is a whacking big con artist. There isn't a snowball's chance in Los Angeles he could pull that off.

[chris]

Given the recent news coverage of head transplantation, readers might be interested in this interview within a recent edition of the Naked Scientists podcast in which we discussed the prospect of transplanting a head, as well as other major body parts.