I remember talking about this kind of thing in my only anat and phys class at Ricks. I was amazed by it. I’ll never forget the idea of a cell telling all of it’s buddies that it doesn’t want to be a stomach cell, it wants to be an eye cell and so he went after his dreams and became an eye cell in a stomach….It gave me a whole new perspective on having eyes bigger than your stomach!

Gwen

[...] Di at Doctor and Covenants pointed me to this story, where a brain surgeon was operating to remove a mass from a patient and [...]

Gwen I love that…cells developing to the beat of their own drums. I have a good friend who has been traveling around the world presenting her fabulous research – that there is an relationship between the head and the heart during embryological development…she has actually engineered mice in lab to develop a head where the heart should be located…

Ah, but sadly, cells that march to the beat of their own drum are called cancer.
This is very impressive and a fascinating story, thanks. I hope you don’t mind the link with the risque post title. The post itself is not that bad, but it ocurred to me one might take it as judgemental. This is certainly not my intention..

Doc, you’re right. when cell development or division disregards the ‘proper’ pathway, it can be quite devastating. don’t mind the linked risque title – i don’t think it’s offensive/judgemental. the reality is that most of science can be very ‘weird’ or mind-boggling…i think most people allow some space for ‘scientific appreciation’ of the peculiarities that can arise. i remember a 13-year-old patient who had a teratoma removed (hair, teeth very obvious once the cystic structure was sliced open) and she was fascinated by this growth in her. she was also very grateful (as were her physicians) that it wasn’t something more malignant).