• Question: could animals be the cure to our hgealth problems in any way :)

    Asked by gabbie romany POTTERHEADS to Hannah, Joanna, Joe, Luis, Vincent on 16 Jun 2016.
    • Photo: Joanna Bagniewska

      Joanna Bagniewska answered on 16 Jun 2016:


      Yes. If you think about it, there are lots of potential solutions to health problems that can be solved by researching nature. Think of bears for instance – they hibernate (go to sleep) for winter; during this time they lie in one place, don’t get up to feed, and don’t go to the toilet. How is it that they don’t get poisoned with their own urine? Why don’t they get bed sores? How come they don’t have bone problems, like osteoporosis? Why don’t they get diabetes, even though they are pretty obese, because they stuff themselves with very sweet fruit in autumn? If we research the biology of bears, we could figure out some of the mechanisms that these animals use, and use them ourselves, for instance to help patients in a coma, or elderly people who are bed-ridden.

    • Photo: Hannah Grist

      Hannah Grist answered on 16 Jun 2016:


      Absolutely! We already use lots of things from nature in medicine.

      For example, when someone breaks a bone really badly, doctors sometimes put coral inside the person, next to the bone, because it helps it grow better.
      Scientists have also used a chemical from a type of sea animal called a sponge to make a drug that helps people with HIV and leukemia.

      There are lots of possibilities of using animals to help us in the future. One exciting way is learning from animals that never die. There is a type of jellyfish that when it gets old, just turns back into a juvenile and grows again. It’s amazing! If we can figure out how these animals keep doing this, we may be able to find a way to stop our cells aging.

    • Photo: Joe Nunez-Mino

      Joe Nunez-Mino answered on 16 Jun 2016:


      We can definitely learn a lot from animals such as bats. A substance called Draculin has recently been isolated from Vampire bat saliva and this may help with some medical conditions. So yes, we coiuld learn from animals to help with some health issues

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