Science/Technology blog

Very briefly - because this kind of thing irritates me so much that I can’t be bothered to devote a great deal of time to it - in almost every single newspaper and media outlet today you will read about the Pixie Dust which helped a man’s finger grow back: “The man who grew a finger” [BBC], “‘Pixie dust’ helps man grow new finger” [Telegraph], “Man’s finger ‘regrown using pig extract’” [ITN], “Sliced finger grows back” [The Sun], etc.

Allow me to explain why I have good grounds to believe that this is nonsense, and that the journalists concerned have failed in the most basic regard.

[NB I gave this story some chat on the Today programme at 7:43am May 2, listen again here]

1.

Here are some pictures of the finger in the news stories today. Obviously I’d be whinging a lot if it happened to me, but it doesn’t look all that bad, just a bit of missing tissue around the distal phalanx. Specifically there is no missing finger, so we might therefore imagine - without the benefit of a journalist’s special knowledge and training - that there is no “missing finger grows back” story to be written here. Apparently we would be wrong.

.

2.

This man lost some skin and flesh from the tip of his finger. He did not lose his nail, or bone. Fingers - and I am very keen to hear from anybody working in plastics at the moment - grow back very well. In particular, skin grows back amazingly well: it never ceases to astonish me, when I take a heroic dive from my 1970s pink rollerskates, that a few months later there can be no evidence of any foolishness on my palms, knees, or indeed face. The wound healing process is also fascinating.

3.

This work has not been published, it’s some bloke who went to the newspapers with his amazing story.

4.

The BBC report has a particularly clueless notion of what a clinical trial might look like:

Clinical trial

They hope soon to start a clinical trial in Buenos Aires on a woman who has cancer of the oesophagus.

Even against the very high standards set by Durham Council on the meaning of the word “trial“, that’s pretty dumb.

5.

They appear to have randomly given some treatment to one man - their mate? - outwith a research programme. That represents the loss of a useful data generating opportunity, and some ethicists take a dim view of people randomly using novel experimental compounds on people (I’m not sure I do, depending on the consent issues, but I do think it’s a shame to perhaps miss out on a useful research opportunity).

Meanwhile

you will find this story….

The man who grew a finger
BBC News, UK - 6 hours ago
The “pixie dust” comes from the University of Pittsburgh, though in the lab Dr Stephen Badylak prefers to call it extra cellular matrix. …

Did a man grow his finger back?
guardian.co.uk, UK - 2 hours ago
The powder was mostly collagen and a variety of substances, without any pig cells, said Dr Stephen Badylak, a regeneration expert at the University of …

[Note: the above story magically changed to become sceptical at 4pm, approx two hours after this blog post was written. The original credulous version is no longer available.]

Pixie dust’ makes man’s severed finger
Times Online, UK - 5 hours ago
It is technically known as extra cellular matrix and was pioneered by Dr Stephen Badylak at the University of Pittsburgh. For ten days, Mr Spievak applied …

‘Pixie dust’ brings scientists closer to growing limbs
ABC Online, Australia - 3 hours ago
He says the powder came from Dr Stephen Badylak, a leading US expert in regenerative medicine. He is experimenting with cells extracted from pig intestines, …

‘Pixie dust’ helps man grow new finger
Telegraph.co.uk, United Kingdom - 18 hours ago
The inventor of the powder, Dr Stephen Badylak from the University of Pittsburgh, has pioneered a process which involves scraping cells from the lining of a …

Pig extract ‘helps fingers regrow’
The Press Association - 9 hours ago
The powder was mostly collagen and a variety of substances, without any pig cells, said Dr Stephen Badylak, a regeneration expert at the University of …

Man’s finger ‘regrown using pig extract’
ITN, UK - 3 hours ago
The powder was mostly collagen and a variety of substances, without any pig cells, said Dr Stephen Badylak, a regeneration expert at the University of …

‘Pixie dust’ made from pigs bladder has amazing power to regrow …
Daily Mail, UK - 17 hours ago
Dr Stephen Badylak (CORR), of the University of Pittsburgh, told the BBC, ‘There are all sorts of signals in the body. “We have got signals that are good …

Scientists create pixie dust to help re-grow lost fingers, limbs
Thaindian.com, Thailand - 6 hours ago
And that is a major step towards eventually doing an entire limb, The Sun quoted Chief researcher Stephen Badylak, as saying. (ANI)

Sliced finger grows back
The Sun, UK - 19 hours ago
Dr Stephen Badylak, from the lab where the substance has been produced, said: “I think that within ten years that we will have strategies that will re-grow …