Head

[Coldfusion]

This is a completely rubbish question, but is it possible to keep a head alive when it's not on the body, if you hooked it up to the right things? Don't worry I'm not some crazy Professor Frankenstein, it's just that somebody mentioned it in a drunken conversation the other day and it got me interested!

[dave_in_cw]

I doubt it it, but if memory serves, Roald Dahl wrote a brilliant little story about a scientist who preserved his brain and one functioning eye suspended in plasma so that he was still conscious of the world around him whilst his body was dead and buried. His wife was a bad sport though and blew her cigarette smoke onto the eye, an act which would have infuriated the old geyser. Think it might be one of the Tales of the Unexpected series. Try reading it, you might get some insights into your wicked plan...

[incitatus]

you could probably manage it for a while with oxygenated blood, but i dont think it would last long due to the trauma. maybe 20 minutes?

[secretsquiz]

it will be possible eventually - they do it all the time in futurama!

[wildwood]

I distinctly remember seeing a documentary not so long ago, where scientists had transplanted a monkey's head and there was some movement in the 'new' head after a while, so it must be possible to keep a head without a body alive from for a limited time. It guess that the brain would need to be kept inactive while the head is detached.

[Gef]

Yes (I think) as long as it has a good blood supply (for oxygen and food) and is kept at body temperature (37C). I'm not sure if there are any other chemicals (eg. enzymes, adrenaline) which are needed but are manufactured in other parts of the body. If that's the case then the head could not survive without them.

[football]

Dennis Potter had a play "Cold Lazerus" with a head wired-up in the way you describe. That was futuristic Sci-fi. The Steve Martin film "The Man With Two Brains" he had a brain in a test-tube aswell as his own.

[firefly]

There was also this discussion whether a head chopped off had any feelings just before death (i.e. while devoid of a body). The general conscensious was a large whack would knock the person out cold, but a smaller whack may mean they have some feelings (though of course no vocal chords or anything). It adds a whole new gruesome element to execution.

[SRobb]

I remember reading an article about a man who was sent to the guillotine in France, he did an experiment with an assistant where he would blink for as long as possible after his head was chopped off, apparently he blinked over forty times after the chop. Although I realise this doesn't have anything to do with the original question. :-)