Until recently archaeologists working on Pompeian artefacts have tended to concentrate on examples of art, some of it erotic, from the town that was suddenly destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in August 79 AD. Now archaeologists are gaining new understandings of everyday life in Pompeii.

Findings described in a new study by Stanford scientists may be the first step toward a major revolution in human regenerative medicine -- a future where advanced organ damage can be repaired by the body itself. Scientists show that a human evolutionary ancestor, the sea squirt, can correct abnormalities over a series of generations, suggesting that a similar regenerative process might be possible in people.