Humble but extraordinary fish

In a living-room aquarium, in spite of its five horizontal blue stripes from head to tail, the zebrafish [Danio rerio], about 5 cm long, is not an exotic creature. Males have faint gold stripes between the blue, and females, silver. But these colors do not make the fish any more exciting.

Although it can neither change its stripes nor work in a circus or a zoo, the zebrafish can nevertheless perform one of the most extraordinary tricks in the entire animal kingdom. If ever its spinal chord were to be broken, the zebrafish is capable of repairing the damage, almost by magic. Click here to access a Wikipedia article on this animal.

The US Science magazine has just published an article [here] that indicates a fabulous research project that might be derived from this humble fish: namely, the possibility of finding out how to repair broken spines in humans.