Planaria Lab

In this lab, the students used planaria-a

simple organism- to study regeneration.
This type of regeneration deals with
whole bodies if wished, not only the
repairing of fleshwounds, like humans
do. These organisms possess the
remarkable ability to use stem cells to
create organs from up to 279ths of a
single planarian. You can cut the
planaria in several different
configurations, as well I recently found
that the planaria do not feel pain and so
the experiment is fairly easy to do.
For this experiment in particular I had
cut the planarian into 6 sections, and
had accidentally stabbed a part of my planarian while I was studying the figure. The
planaria, after days of growth will show a massive increase to their bodys mass. The
planaria are creatures who do not take kindly to light and so grow better in darker
spaces. They are fairly small creatures, with mine measuring only about an inch in
length. The planarias system is made of a simple nervous system with an oval
appearance and a bundle of nerves in the head, they contain both reproductive organs
for the typical sexes(f,m). The planaria, unlike humans do not contain a circulatory
system, and therefore do not feel the need to heal wounds since the purpose is to clot
blood from leaving the body. Because of this planaria take a healthier option by
regeneration, where they reprogram body parts.