…and this is a 
Stevie C sent along this article on An unusual presentation of supernumerary breast tissue (just what were you googling for, Stevie?), in which a woman reports an annoying growth on her foot, and when examined, is discovered to have a breast growing there, complete with nipple and fatty tissue (but in this case, no glandular tissue).
It's in the Dermatology Online Journal, not the Onion.
I hadn't heard of this before myself, but it's fascinating. These supernumerary breasts can pop up all over the place, including the face, back, and thigh (and foot, obviously). They can be functionally complete, and can even lactate. The authors report some weak and sometimes contradicted associations with other oddities, but no causal mechanism is known. These cases of autonomous self-organization and recruitment of organs are extremely interesting—it suggests that a breast would be a fairly easy tissue to grow in a dish. I'd love to know what the molecular signal for initiating differentiation—I suspect it's something simple and common.
Comments
Posted by: Joshua | March 13, 2007 2:19 PM
That's it. 100% conclusive evidence that I'm in the wrong damned field.
Posted by: TAW | March 13, 2007 2:25 PM
eeww. it even has hair.
Posted by: Bronze Dog | March 13, 2007 2:28 PM
And pretty soon, we'll have the George Carlin "words that sound dirty but aren't" 'pussyfoot', thus turning it dirty.
Posted by: Garrett | March 13, 2007 2:30 PM
Wait, do we have to blur that for viewing by the squeamish American public?
Posted by: Blake Stacey | March 13, 2007 2:33 PM
Must. . . resist. . . temptation. . . to. . . wisecrack. . . about. . . foot. . . fetishes. . . .
Aaarrgh!
Posted by: Rey Fox | March 13, 2007 2:33 PM
Don't worry, it's nonfunctional, so one could call it a male nipple and sneak it by the censors.
Posted by: josh | March 13, 2007 2:37 PM
Oh, Sexy!
Posted by: Steve_C | March 13, 2007 2:39 PM
Ummm... to be honest. I saw it on Digg.
Would flip flops be painful with that?
Posted by: chris y | March 13, 2007 2:43 PM
It'd have got her hanged a few hundred years ago. How common is this condition - common enough to underlie the myths about familiars?
Posted by: Hank Fox | March 13, 2007 2:48 PM
...
...
I'm almost certain Dr. Scholl's has some kind of medicated patch for this.
...
...
Posted by: James | March 13, 2007 2:51 PM
Other similar examples are pictured in Leroi's book Mutants.
Posted by: djlactin | March 13, 2007 2:59 PM
Full disclosure here: I have a third nipple. It's about 1/4 inch across and about 5" south of my (normal) right nipple. I looks like a big mole, but has that little pointy bit in the middle. I'm pretty sure a lot of people have something similar but never noticed....
Posted by: Mister Nice Guy | March 13, 2007 3:02 PM
And here I thought the one on my lower right chest was weird.
The prospect of culturing breast tissue, possibly an entire breast, is quite intriguing. It would be a big benefit to a woman of my acquaintance, who lost her nipples (and almost her life) due to a botched breast reduction.
Posted by: Azkyroth | March 13, 2007 3:31 PM
Hmm. Yeah, this would be useful for transplants and such. Of course you know, the companies that sell Viagra are probably going to be looking at finding a way to grow an autonomous vagina and market them. x.x *cringes*
Posted by: factician | March 13, 2007 3:32 PM
Yep, the journal article says it's present in 1-5% of the population. Pretty cool, if you ask me... But it makes The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxies' "Triple-Breasted Whore of Eroticon 6" seem somewhat less exotic.
Posted by: RAM | March 13, 2007 3:43 PM
"chris y: It'd have got her hanged a few hundred years ago. How common is this condition - common enough to underlie the myths about familiars? "
That was exactly my first thought too. May explain the "devil's teet" myth. Who would have guessed?!?
Posted by: Melody | March 13, 2007 3:43 PM
I wonder if the breast could be transplanted. Might be useful for patients who have had a mastectomy.
Posted by: knarf | March 13, 2007 4:02 PM
Not quite the same as it's most likely virally induced but this is equally bizarre: http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2007/03/missionary_enco.html
Posted by: CCP | March 13, 2007 4:03 PM
Huh. Pretty cool, I guess.
Now, a man with three buttocks...that would really be something.
Posted by: archgoon | March 13, 2007 4:10 PM
Um PZ? Couldn't you have placed a NSFW warning? :)
Posted by: Rick @ shrimp and grits | March 13, 2007 4:12 PM
Um PZ? Couldn't you have placed a NSFW warning?
Not Safe For Walking?
Posted by: Kevin Dorner | March 13, 2007 4:23 PM
Must have gotten it from walking abreast, or something nippling at her heels. But now she can walk down Mammary Lane like no one else can.
Heard of something like this before. Boy in Florida had a tooth growing from his foot. Can't find any web references on it though.
Posted by: crunchy frog | March 13, 2007 5:32 PM
Of course you can grow breasts in a dish. Just ask Dr. Bernardo.
http://imdb.com/title/tt0068555/
Of course, you might want to have a giant bra handy in case you miscalculate the growth rate!
Posted by: Kseniya | March 13, 2007 6:03 PM
It would be a big benefit to a woman of my acquaintance, who lost her nipples (and almost her life) due to a botched breast reduction
I've never heard of such a thing. That's awful.
Does this breast-in-a-dish idea relate at all to ESC research?
Posted by: Peter McGrath | March 13, 2007 6:32 PM
Shoe size: 9a. Sorry. Someone had to say it.
Posted by: The Physicist | March 13, 2007 7:38 PM
Sexy!
Posted by: Stuart Weinstein | March 13, 2007 8:28 PM
Wow!
A few more like that and she can have puppies!!!
Posted by: Stuart Weinstein | March 13, 2007 8:30 PM
"Huh. Pretty cool, I guess.
Now, a man with three buttocks...that would really be something."
Don't know about a guy with three buttocks.
I have heard about the guy with three penises.
Apparently his pants fit like a glove.
Posted by: Observer | March 13, 2007 9:14 PM
They can be functionally complete, and can even lactate.
Sole food?
Posted by: Xenophile | March 13, 2007 10:10 PM
This adds a whole new dimension to the phrase "lift and separate."
Posted by: Monado | March 13, 2007 11:43 PM
Interesting. I thought that extra breasts always grew along the milk lines (where teats develop, e.g. two for near the arms, whole rows for dogs and pigs, four near the hind legs for cows, two near the hind legs for goats.)
I guess with enough people in the world you can find anything.
Posted by: autumn | March 14, 2007 1:19 AM
I, too, have a tertiary nipple about an inch below my normal right nipple, and it looks just like a miniature version of it's big brother (sister?). It even has a good crop of chest hair growing around it in the standard male nipple formation, although I also have a scar from a chest tube inserted above my right nipple which has grown nipple hair as well.
Posted by: Spinoza | March 14, 2007 1:34 AM
Philip Roth, eat your (heart) out.
:-)
Posted by: Cosmic Rei | March 14, 2007 2:11 AM
Surely this post should have been titled, "Looking for love in all the wrong places"?
Posted by: Sarah | March 14, 2007 2:19 AM
The milk lines are very long---they start on the upper back in the shoulderblade region, run over the shoulder/clavicle, down the entire thorax and abdomen, and down the inner thigh. I've not heard of them going down the anatomical leg to the foot, but perhaps they do.
Posted by: Cat | March 14, 2007 3:03 AM
Well after all, a breast is nothing more than a modified sweat gland (from Mom, who teaches mammalian anatomy), and what better place to find sweat glands than on the bottoms of the feet? On a side note someone decided to do genetic analysis on the microorganisms that turn milk into cheese, they found that the closest living relatives are found on the sole of the human foot (promting them to theorize that the first cheese came about when someone stepped in a puddle of milk, then was brave enough to try the curdled substance). Does that mean this nipple would produce cheese?
On to my other reaction. Eeew. That must squelch when she walks (just thinking about walking on my breasts gives me the shivers).
Are you kidding? She can go out in public without a shirt on and no one can complain she's showing her nipples.
Posted by: khan | March 14, 2007 1:41 PM
Try shaving around a mini-nipple in your armpit.
I wonder if AIG mentions this?
Posted by: CortxVortx | March 14, 2007 3:32 PM
She'll have no lack of volunteers when she wants a foot-rub.
-- CV