Hope for Trump yet: Yale scientists restore brain function to 32 clinically dead pigs.

Researchers at the Yale School of Medicine successfully restored some functions to pig brains that had been dead for hours.

They hope the technology will advance our understanding of the brain, potentially developing new treatments for debilitating diseases and disorders.

The research raises many ethical questions and puts to the test our current understanding of death.

The image of an undead brain coming back to live again is the stuff of science fiction. Not just any science fiction, specifically B-grade sci fi. What instantly springs to mind is the black-and-white horrors of films like Fiend Without a Face. Bad acting. Plastic monstrosities. Visible strings. And a spinal cord that, for some reason, is also a tentacle?

But like any good science fiction, it's only a matter of time before some manner of it seeps into our reality. This week's Nature published the findings of researchers who managed to restore function to pigs' brains that were clinically dead. At least, what we once thought of as dead.

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