Technology and biology are crossing paths more closely than ever before these days, with medical implants like artificial joints and pacemakers becoming commonplace. It raises a curious question: what is the limit to which the human body can be modified? Millions of people today walk around on artificial hips and knees, so could a person potentially turn all of their bones metallic, à la Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine from the MCU? It probably won’t surprise you to learn that the answer is a firm no, but you might be surprised to hear just how painful and futile cladding your bones in metal would be in reality.
The first issue is fusing metal to the bone, never mind the fact that the metal used in the Marvel series, adamantium, isn’t even real. Those familiar with X-Men lore know that Wolverine got his indestructible skeleton through an incredibly painful procedure that injected liquid metal directly into his bones. It is possible for metal to bind with organic material, and this is actually seen in the case of leaf-cutter ants, which have zinc and copper atoms on their powerful mandibles. However, pumping molten metal into a person’s body would be painful and dangerous beyond belief.
Even if someone managed to survive the process of having metal bonded to their bones, the results would give them a terrible quality of life. Metal bones would make a person much heavier and limit their movements. Worse, the living bone tissue would eventually die because the metal would cut off the flow of nutrients.
What about Wolverine’s healing abilities?
Wolverine’s indestructible skeleton is clearly impossible to replicate, but what about his legendary healing abilities? Those aren’t merely the products of fiction, like adamantium is; there are several real-life species that have the ability to regenerate body parts, most famously geckos, which can shed and regrow their tails to escape predators. Some species of worms and jellyfish can even regenerate whole bodies after being severed in two. These species, including the famous immortal jellyfish, which can live indefinitely thanks to its own regenerative healing powers, have fascinated medical researchers since long before the X-Men ever debuted. After centuries of aspiration, scientists are finally beginning to make some promising breakthroughs.
Biologists from Harvard University may have finally discovered the key to self-healing. In a 2019 study published in the journal Science, a team of researchers led by professor Mansi Srivastava and postdoctoral fellow Andrew Gehrke examined the DNA of three-banded panther worms, which can regenerate large portions of their bodies. They singled out the early growth response gene, or EGR, as a sort of master switch that activates all the other genes that help the worms heal. EGR previously escaped notice because it is found in the non-coding part of the genome, but now that it’s come into focus, forthcoming research could reveal a way for humans to take control of our own EGR genes and turn ourselves into nearly indestructible beings. Better yet, without needing to haul hundreds of pounds of metal bones around inside us!
