Is Regeneration Possible?

Doctor Who makes it look so easy. Is there hope for the rest of us?

- Stephen Kelly

Tne of the main reasons why Doctor Who – both the show and the character – has survived so long is the concept of regeneration. Every time the Doctor dies, the character is renewed – their cells rewritten, their wounds repaired, their severed limbs regrown. It’s a process that Jodie Whittaker’s 13th Doctor will be undergoing soon, with her final series due to air on BBC One this October.

The idea of a regeneration so extreme that it can transform one person into another is, of course, a bit fanciful. But the basic tenets of regeneration (extending life, regrowing body parts) is science fact in the animal kingdom – and one day, it might be for us too.

“I’m old enough to say, ‘never say never,’” says Alejandro Sánchez Alvarado, a molecular biologist at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research in Kansas. Alvarado studies the regenerative abilities of planarian flatworms. Remember that episode of