Weird Scientist: Charles Claude Guthrie

It was described at the time: "The transplanted head was sewn on at the base of the neck, upside down, so the two dogs are chin to chin, giving an impression of intimacy, despite what must have been at the very least a strained coexistence....too much time (20 minutes) had elapsed between the beheading and the moment the circulation was restored for the dog head and brain to regain much function."

Freaky fellow. I think it was just this kind of dodgy experiments that gave the Nobel Jury some doubt.

But is this the end for the two-headed dog? Nope, some barmy Russian followed in Guthrie's footsteps in the 1960s.

Vladimir Petrovich Demikhov, no less the chief of the organ-transplanting laboratory of the Soviet Academy of Medical Sciences, decided to have a go himself.

He grafted the head, shoulders and front legs of a puppy onto the neck of a mature German shepherd.

Vlad the Bad created 20 dual pooches in the end. With the record time of survival reaching a month.

So who is the more crazy? The madman or the madman who follows?

(I did find some pictures of the poor hounds in question but decided not to post them. They're a little too gruesome)

Weird Science Factoid: Most of your body's cells aren't yours. You're made up of more microbes than anything else.