“Scientists grow brain in rat's thigh” was the title used by The Learning Channel News Service (US, 3 December) to announce a new model of brain hypoxia reported in Neuroscience Letters. In the experiment, Nobutumi Kawai and his colleagues (Jichi Medical School, Japan) decapitated newborn rats and waited 90 minutes before grafting the heads onto the thighs of adult rats, hoping that the leg arteries would restore blood supply to the brain.

Remarkably, some nervous tissue survived. “A transplanted brain can develop as normal for at least three weeks”, reported the New Scientist News Service (UK, 2 December), choosing imagery that will feed the imagination of B-series horror moviemakers: “the mouth of the head will move, as if it is trying to drink milk”.

But not everybody seems enthused by what The Strait Times (Singapore, 6 December) referred to as “the grisly technique”. Denis Azzopardi, of Imperial College London reminds us that there are other well established models of ischemia, “so I'm not sure that this complicated technique offers an advantage in any way” (New Scientist News Service). Besides, at a time of great interest in animal welfare, this experiment might add more fuel to what is already a raging fire. According to a spokesperson of the UK Research Defense Society, “vivisection that provides no obvious research benefit and involves clear animal suffering will only cause public concern” (New Scientist News Service).

Whether we ultimately reap any benefits from this approach remains to be seen. In the meantime, we can be sure that this experiment gives a total new meaning to the phrase 'exercise your brain'.