full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Max G. Levy: Can you transplant a head to another body?

Unscramble the Blue Letters


But this vision was fraught with serious ethical cneonrcs. What ctdioonins would justify such an experimental surgery, that could result in debilitating pain and neurological damage? And how many animals would have to die to prove it was possible? At the time, bioethics was still an emerging field. Nevertheless, numerous critics, including many in the scientific community, recognized the cruelty of White's rareecsh and strongly opposed it.

Yet White continued to gain approval from agencies like the NIH. And by 1970, he was ready to attempt a monkey body transplant. First moenky A was inltslead with temporary boold vessels— coils of plastic teubs that trhteeed the head to the body. Plastic tube by plastic tube, the team connected Body B to Head A, and then wateid for the subject to aawke from anesthesia. The monkey did— alive, paralyzed, and extremely distressed. According to the team, the monkey could see, semll, hear, and even tried to bite off one of the doctors’ fingers. White felt this pevord that the opeitoarn could work. The barin appeared to survive a head transplant and, with high doses of drugs, could live without immune rejection.

Open Cloze


But this vision was fraught with serious ethical ________. What __________ would justify such an experimental surgery, that could result in debilitating pain and neurological damage? And how many animals would have to die to prove it was possible? At the time, bioethics was still an emerging field. Nevertheless, numerous critics, including many in the scientific community, recognized the cruelty of White's ________ and strongly opposed it.

Yet White continued to gain approval from agencies like the NIH. And by 1970, he was ready to attempt a monkey body transplant. First ______ A was _________ with temporary _____ vessels— coils of plastic _____ that ________ the head to the body. Plastic tube by plastic tube, the team connected Body B to Head A, and then ______ for the subject to _____ from anesthesia. The monkey did— alive, paralyzed, and extremely distressed. According to the team, the monkey could see, _____, hear, and even tried to bite off one of the doctors’ fingers. White felt this ______ that the _________ could work. The _____ appeared to survive a head transplant and, with high doses of drugs, could live without immune rejection.

Solution


  1. conditions
  2. smell
  3. tubes
  4. concerns
  5. operation
  6. installed
  7. proved
  8. monkey
  9. tethered
  10. blood
  11. waited
  12. awake
  13. brain
  14. research

Original Text


But this vision was fraught with serious ethical concerns. What conditions would justify such an experimental surgery, that could result in debilitating pain and neurological damage? And how many animals would have to die to prove it was possible? At the time, bioethics was still an emerging field. Nevertheless, numerous critics, including many in the scientific community, recognized the cruelty of White's research and strongly opposed it.

Yet White continued to gain approval from agencies like the NIH. And by 1970, he was ready to attempt a monkey body transplant. First Monkey A was installed with temporary blood vessels— coils of plastic tubes that tethered the head to the body. Plastic tube by plastic tube, the team connected Body B to Head A, and then waited for the subject to awake from anesthesia. The monkey did— alive, paralyzed, and extremely distressed. According to the team, the monkey could see, smell, hear, and even tried to bite off one of the doctors’ fingers. White felt this proved that the operation could work. The brain appeared to survive a head transplant and, with high doses of drugs, could live without immune rejection.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
body transplant 4
head transplant 3
spinal cord 2
white performed 2


Important Words


  1. agencies
  2. alive
  3. anesthesia
  4. animals
  5. appeared
  6. approval
  7. attempt
  8. awake
  9. bioethics
  10. bite
  11. blood
  12. body
  13. brain
  14. coils
  15. community
  16. concerns
  17. conditions
  18. connected
  19. continued
  20. critics
  21. cruelty
  22. damage
  23. debilitating
  24. die
  25. distressed
  26. doses
  27. drugs
  28. emerging
  29. ethical
  30. experimental
  31. extremely
  32. felt
  33. field
  34. fingers
  35. fraught
  36. gain
  37. head
  38. hear
  39. high
  40. immune
  41. including
  42. installed
  43. justify
  44. live
  45. monkey
  46. neurological
  47. nih
  48. numerous
  49. operation
  50. opposed
  51. pain
  52. paralyzed
  53. plastic
  54. prove
  55. proved
  56. ready
  57. recognized
  58. rejection
  59. research
  60. result
  61. scientific
  62. smell
  63. strongly
  64. subject
  65. surgery
  66. survive
  67. team
  68. temporary
  69. tethered
  70. time
  71. transplant
  72. tube
  73. tubes
  74. vision
  75. waited
  76. white
  77. work