11 Craziest Things People Have Done In The Name Of Science

In true crazy style, the way only the Russians can do, 30-year-old Valery Spiridinov from Russia has volunteered himself to be the first human head transplant. Spiridinov suffers from Werdnig Hoffman disease, a condition that has left him paralysed from the neck down, and hopes that by transplanting his head on to another body, he will be able to walk again.

Italian neuroscientist Dr Sergio Canavero is confident that he can perform the procedure, and that he can do it in less than a day. He has confidently assured the press that he predicts a 90% success rate for the operation, but others are not so sure. 

The procedure involves cooling the head and the donor body to between 10 and 20°C to prevent damage to the brain, and attaching the Spiridinov's head to the new body at the neck, sewing the blood vessels together.

Dr Canavero is confident that the spinal cord will survive the operation as he intends to cut it with a sharp blade rather than the blunt trauma that is the cause of most spinal injury. The body is then kept in a coma to allow the spinal cord to heal itself. All sounds perfectly simple - the only question left to answer now is whether it's technically a head transplant or a body transplant...