Part-human part-mouse brain developed in science breakthrough

Discussion (8 Comments)Read Original on HackerNews

theseamusjames•about 1 hour ago

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.

bygosh•about 1 hour 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.

zhaoziyuan2000•about 1 hour ago

Does this remind anyone of that novel Flowers for Algernon..?

lioeters•2 minutes 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?

yieldcrv•28 minutes ago

> 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

d--b•38 minutes ago

Sounds like “the scret of NIMH” an animated movie from the 80s, where intelligent mice escape a science lab.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Secret_of_NIMH

LoganDark•about 1 hour 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 disorders" = mental illness)

0xDECAF•about 1 hour ago

ed...ward?

Part-human part-mouse brain developed in science breakthrough

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Discussion (8 Comments)Read Original on HackerNews