Great news: we're excellent at curing mice of diseases. All this time we've been trying to find drugs that have the same effect in humans as they do in mice, but until now no one has had the insight or bravery to ask the question, "What if we just made people more mouse?" Exciting stuff.
autoexec 3 hours ago [-]
> until now no one has had the insight or bravery to ask the question, "What if we just made people more mouse?" Exciting stuff.
This is making mice more people, but either way it's an exciting day for mice everywhere.
sicktriple 1 hours ago [-]
Not really, since this is just inventing new and exciting ways to give mice more brain diseases
M95D 13 minutes ago [-]
This is just inventing new and exciting ways to give mice more human brain diseases.
jdalsgaard 12 minutes ago [-]
Forget Artificial Intelligence, _Real Intelligence_ is coming...
Developmental xenocortication using human-derived organoids in mice
bygosh 4 hours ago [-]
> The scientists said their work, published in the journal Nature, was carried out with independent ethical scrutiny.
oh, I guess there's nothing to be concerned about.
rf15 1 hours ago [-]
I think you just misread that - the adjective independent refers to ethical, not scrutiny /s
autoexec 3 hours ago [-]
The article walks the headline back pretty quickly. Parts of human brains in mice becomes "pieces of brain-like tissue" made from skin cells and formed into "collections of connected, living cells" followed by a line on how there's "no indication that what's being created here are mice that can think like humans, or a human brain in a mouse body." and that the human cells started to look and function like the outer layer of the mouse's brain as opposed to looking or functioning like a part of a human brain.
It's still kind of neat though and I hope it's actually somehow useful for something.
zhaoziyuan2000 4 hours ago [-]
Does this remind anyone of that novel Flowers for Algernon..?
lioeters 3 hours ago [-]
That story was so sad, reading it was like actually going through the process together with the main character.
The past few years I seem to be seeing more and more experiments with growing brains in laboratories. Aren't there laws regulating bioethics that forbid such questionable practices? Not that laws ever stopped determined nation states or private researchers from pursuing knowledge - or profit, or competitive advantage - at any cost.
I imagine some would argue there is no ethical problem, because these brains do not experience suffering like humans do. But how do you know for sure?
fc417fc802 1 hours ago [-]
> Aren't there laws regulating bioethics that forbid such questionable practices?
Not generally, no. Most of it is by convention coupled with the fact that no reputable journal will publish your work these days if you don't go through an IRB for certain types of work. There's also the funding angle, with most work being paid for by one of a few very large governmental bodies and each of those having stringent rules about what they do and don't permit.
Basically pursuing certain lines of research would make you unemployable thus (almost) nobody does it. Unless it looks likely to turn a profit in which case you can start a company and try your luck with VCs.
yawpitch 13 minutes ago [-]
Narf!
bsimpson 3 hours ago [-]
They're Pinky and the Brain...yes: Pinky and the Brain...
seydor 2 hours ago [-]
So now we have found a way to use brain organoids by grafting and growing them inside mouse heads. Those Frankenmice will be used as a platform from now on.
I m looking forward to talk to the first language-capable Frankenmouse.
edoceo 2 hours ago [-]
Hook that thing up to the Torment Nexus and see what the next tech-bubble will be!
d--b 4 hours ago [-]
Sounds like “the scret of NIMH” an animated movie from the 80s, where intelligent mice escape a science lab.
> While mice with brains that are partly human might sound like a Kafkaesque experiment, the scientists said these are not "mice that think like humans".
oh, thank god
MeteorMarc 2 hours ago [-]
No, they are just grumpy.
LoganDark 4 hours ago [-]
I feel like it's going to be difficult to characterize how mental illness translates to mice, even if you get human cells in there. ("psychiatric diseases" = mental illness)
0xDECAF 4 hours ago [-]
ed...ward?
fnordpiglet 3 hours ago [-]
I for one welcome our part human part mouse brain overlords.
Rendered at 07:22:59 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) with Vercel.
This is making mice more people, but either way it's an exciting day for mice everywhere.
(Background material: https://hitchhikers.fandom.com/wiki/Mice)
Developmental xenocortication using human-derived organoids in mice
oh, I guess there's nothing to be concerned about.
It's still kind of neat though and I hope it's actually somehow useful for something.
The past few years I seem to be seeing more and more experiments with growing brains in laboratories. Aren't there laws regulating bioethics that forbid such questionable practices? Not that laws ever stopped determined nation states or private researchers from pursuing knowledge - or profit, or competitive advantage - at any cost.
I imagine some would argue there is no ethical problem, because these brains do not experience suffering like humans do. But how do you know for sure?
Not generally, no. Most of it is by convention coupled with the fact that no reputable journal will publish your work these days if you don't go through an IRB for certain types of work. There's also the funding angle, with most work being paid for by one of a few very large governmental bodies and each of those having stringent rules about what they do and don't permit.
Basically pursuing certain lines of research would make you unemployable thus (almost) nobody does it. Unless it looks likely to turn a profit in which case you can start a company and try your luck with VCs.
I m looking forward to talk to the first language-capable Frankenmouse.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Secret_of_NIMH
oh, thank god