Do all humans have the same number of veins and arteries? If so, how does the body know how many and where to make these veins and arteries?
In: Biology
This is an amazing video from Michael Levin from Tufts about how the body might know how to build these complex structures:
It’s long but fascinating. TLDR version is that all cells have connections with their neighbours similar to the ones neurons in our brains do. These connections create bio-electrical “maps” for where things go. For example, with a small change to those connections he made a zebra fish’s gut turn into an eye with all the parts of an eye. Not gene editing, not manipulating cell by cell, just changing the bio electrical map.
Quite incredible watch!
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