GETTING A HEAD.

The article discusses the science fiction related to head transplant. In the 1959 horror movie "The Brain That Wouldn't Die," surgeon Bill Cortner is obsessed with experimenting on human subjects, dead or alive. In 1908, American surgeon Charles Guthrie perfected the science of anastomosis, the stitching together of severed blood vessels, and decided to put the technique to use. The second head exhibited some basic reflexes, such as blinking. But brains can withstand only a few minutes without normal blood flow, and the transplanted head had gone without blood for 20 minutes during surgery.