THEY are masters at regenerating their own limbs, tails, jaws,
retina and heart. They can recover from spinal chord and brain
injury and can easily tolerate organ transplants. And to top
things off, they don't get cancer. Meet the axolotl, otherwise
known as the Mexican walking fish.. ''This animal guards so many
interesting biological secrets,'' says James Godwin, a senior
research fellow at Monash University's Australian Regenerative
Medicine Institute. ''Things that would leave humans in a
wheelchair or dead they can just repair in no time at all.'' And
there's more to this extraordinary amphibian, which was named
after an Aztec god who transformed into a water animal to avoid
being sacrificed. The skin of the albino axolotl is transparent
enough so that you can actually watch the organs and blood
vessels as they pump and pulse under the surface. In juveniles,
it is possible to distinguish between the left and right
hemispheres of the brain when peering thorough the translucent
skin. But what most excites