Eli5: if our bodies are able to form entire human beings from scratch, why can’t it grow back organs that have been amputated?
In: Biology
The purpose of our bodies is to reproduce, as in “keep this group of genes still in living beings”, or “build new entire humans beings from scratch”.
So it begins structuring a body with cells that are given specific tasks to keep it going until it can reproduce. Since evolution is what drives the ways the organisms are built to survive until they reproduce, throughout history the “regrow limbs” skill did not significantly impact humans, at least not in the same way it did some lizards and starfish.
The reason for why it cannot grow back whole limbs or some other organs is because it does not need to. It has the capacity for it written on its DNA, but to put that into work it would be unnecessarily taxing to the body, specially one that can reproduce without that ability being frequently needed.
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