'I'll do the first human head transplant'

Italian surgeon Sergio Canavero says he will change medical history as soon as 2017 - he even has a volunteer. Can it be done?

Outside a large concrete hospital in Turin, Sergio Canavero speaks in formal Italian, trying to persuade a pair of security guards to let us use the staff car park. It is hot. The guards sit inside a shaded hut and peer out at Canavero, who is 51, short and fit, dressed in T-shirt and sandals, tufts of grey hair around his head giving way to a bald, caramel-coloured dome on top. "Allora," Canavero begins, explaining to the guards that he used to be employed at the hospital, a surgeon in the neurology department, and is back for a visit.

At the end of his speech, he moves a stiff hand across his neck, a cut-throat gesture that would represent a threat if made by almost anyone else. The guards grin in recognition and wave us through. "I told them I'm the guy who's going to do the first human head transplant," Canavero tells me. "Italians are suckers for a celeb."