There are two areas of great importance in scientific research today, namely the health of our planet, and the health of our bodies. Doug Melton explores the latter, regenerative biology, in his Floating University lecture.

Doug Melton: It’s what I see as a new era of medicine based in regenerative biology.  It starts from the fact, the amazing fact, that all of the cells in the body have this potential to make other kinds of cells.  This has led to the discovery of human embryonic stem cells and other stem cells, which we’d now like to use to replace tissue and body parts and use to understand the root causes of disease.  

I think you’ll see soon that that will also lead to the possibility of a healthier life, what I call healthy aging, where we’re not trying to fix you because you’ve had some disease or injury, but rather just replenish your body to maintain its young and vibrant state.  This will inevitably lead to the possibility of changing our bodies in a way that was previously unimaginable.