The Lazarus Heart
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the instructions as to what cells were needed would come from the sur-
rounding healthy heart muscle.
In the salamander this process takes about six hours. Since this ex-
ceeds the current limits of "machine time" for artificial circulation in
humans, we would have to extend the capacities of heart-lung devices or
else speed up the cellular processes. Obviously there's a long road of
experiment to travel before we can be more specific about techniques.
One of the things we must learn is whether the newt's electrocardiogram
shuts down during repair. We must know how its presence or absence
relates to the current of injury and other electrical
factors
in this novel
method of
blastema formation.