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Scientists Can Now Grow Brain Cells In The Lab
H_Fisher writes "Scientists in Florida have grown mature brain cells in the laboratory, a scientific first. The Independent reports that "[...]they were able to produce virtually unlimited quantities of brain cells, which could revolutionise transplant medicine as well as leading to new drugs to stimulate the regrowth of damaged nerves." This could be a milestone in the treatment of Parkinson's Disease, Alzheimer's, and many other illnesses and injuries."
Friends! They have been getting pretty lonely.
Now we'll really be ready when the dead rise from the grave.
Show me on the doll where his noodly appendage touched you.
Can these brains do floating point operations?
...to my acid flashbacks!!! Bye bye holes in my brain. Soon I'll be able to fly my jet again.
try { Signature mysig = new CleverAttempt(); } catch(NonCleverSignatureException e) { postanyway(); }
The first application that leaps to mind is that regenerated cells could be used to replace damanged or aged cells somehow, but is that really possible?
Other types of tissue have been reproduced before, but I've never heard of it being applied such a way. For instance, if you suffer liver failure, your still dependent on an organ doner..
Or are are there already some types of organ regeneration procedures already in practice? I would guess that the brain would be one of the most difficut types of tissue to do things like this.
Seriously, if they're making "virtually unlimited quantities" they should at least shove a bunch together and wire up some sort of interface. It'd be interesting to see if it'll learn how to interact with whatever inputs it's given and maybe learn to respond.
We could then start teaching it stuff. Much fun.
Direct away from face when opening.
Finally, the end of the Republican party is in sight.
A dyslexic man walks into a bra.
Someone will probably try to create a meter-wide brain now, and then enslave it to produce slightly better marketing memes. That is, until it escapes from its jar and takes over the world.
Seriously people, have you noticed the layout of that news site? The text barely occupies 1/4 of the screen's width? Or am I the only one who's disgusted ?
The AACS key is NOT 0xF606EEFD628B1CA427BEA93A9CA9773F
Within the limitation that some mechanism for simulating the blood/brain barrier will have to be devised, this should lead to a new generation of drug screens. Now you can test the effect of new drugs at physiological concentrations on real brain cells. This potentially means no more guess-work based on rat models, and less endangering of real patients during the phase three trials.
Of course, people with more vision than I have will undoubtedly be using this as a way of testing their Borg prototypes, but that's progress of a sort as well. Seriously enough, this will allow you to do the necessary tests to make sure that human cells interface correctly with cybernetic implants, thereby speeding development of bionic eyes, neuro-muscular interfaces, etc.
So, how long until, "we can remember it for you wholesale", or "johnny mnemonic"?
the more accurate the calculations became, the more the concepts tended to vanish into thin air. R. S. Mulliken
So there is hope for my coworkers after all!
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to the phrase "artificial intelligence"
I know this is slashdot and all, but really, you should get out more.
Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.
-- Pablo Picasso
Treating disease? We should be using these new brain cells to augment existing brilliance!
It seems almost like a waste to repair an alzheimers damaged brain which will be dead in 10 years anyway when you could, instead, augment, say... mine, and I've got a good 60 or 70 years to go.
Selfish old people, hmph.
MoM++ - A Classic Expanded - [Master of Magic 1.5]
http://mompp.sourceforge.net/
A series of giant interstellar brains deliver facts on placards to the Infosphere.
Infosphere:
Beavers mate for life.
11 > 4.
For quality carpets, visit Kaplan's Carpet Warehouse!!
Can they grow Pinky cells yet?
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
This discoveries are pretty fantastic, but they worry me.
Right now the technology doesn't exist to artificially increase yours or your baby's intelligence using artificially generated brain cells. But everytime I see an article like this, I realize that by the time I die there will be some serious questions people will be making like, "is it okay to up my intelligence by 10 points?"
I don't want to have to make those kinds of decisions, or to live in a world where it will be possible. because once a handful of people start doing things like that the rest of us have a lot of pressure to do the same. if 2 percent of people start doing that it makes the rest of us a lot less competative.
these kinds of things already happen, they're just not physiological. there started to be people working crazy overtime, and their peers had no choice but to do the same in order to compete.
but as much as i don't like sacrificing time at home, the question of "how much overtime do i work" is really tiny compared to "how much do i f*ck with my kids brain?"
just not a question i want to have to ask...
What comes first, finding a teacher or becoming a student?
Am I the only one wondering how many of these brain cells will be needed to have a brain with feelings? Am I the only one concerned about the moral implications of these experiments? If embryos aren't human because they don't have a brain and can't have human emotions, then what do we say about something that consists of only a human brain and is capable of emotion, but has has no way of expressing to us what those emotions are?
I often don't like the choices people make, but I like the fact that people make choices. That's why I'm a conservative.
Dr. Schroeder: "Did you kill them all?"
Igor: "I guess... They started auto-lysing last night, don't know why. Yeah, the new batch's gonna be ready on Thursday. All pretty happy so far, pink and shiny - have a look into my jars."
I doubt that we will ever figure out - and I suspect that even if we did figure out we couldn't do much about it
Those that are genetically "perfect" are given extra benefits, and those that are not are destined to live lives of unimportance, working menial jobs.
Not enough people think beyond themselves these days, and think of the wider implications of what advances can have on society as a whole.
Why assume that children will be the first for a brain boost?
People are going to augment themselves first and fastest. Long before people are mucking around with their children's brains (or genes for that matter), people will be trying to uplift themselves. Kids are gonna be BEGGING to be upgraded. Ask yourself how many people don't want to be smarter.
As for worrying about it, why? Would you every say "I worry about Google but all the information of the world at my finger tips." The are many many dangerous things on the Internet, do you worry about them? There are many dangerous things in books, do you worry about them?
I mod everyone down who says "I'll get modded down for this." I hate to disappoint.
With rat brain cells, in a suspesion, with lots of tiny wires on a core placed into them, they found that patterns emerged.
But our brains have built in abilities, for instance, we do not learn to smell or process visual cues, or move our muscles.
What would be cool? The ability to interface a controlled part of the brain (like, learn something while thinking about the beatles) to allow us to control which part of the brain stores some info, and have this as a removable, tranferrable core, and then see if we insert into into someone else, can they access their own interface (by perhaps, thinking about lemons) which would trigger these new associations.
It would give a while new meaning to getting someone to do your homework, they could also study for you for the exam, or lend you their notes literally.
Or actors could shag fit celebrities, and then copy their thoughts, and you rent them, and have memories of the event.
Coolies. Weird.
#hostfile 0.0.0.0 primidi.com 0.0.0.0 www.primidi.com 0.0.0.0 radio.weblogs.com
send these cells to:
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
Maybe there is hope?
Grundgesetz * 23. Mai 1949 - 30. November 2007 - http://www.vorratsdatenspeicherung.de/
Can I just pour the petri dish into my ear?
Never hit your grandmother with a shovel, for it leaves a bad impression on her mind...
that my Monthly "attitiude" adjustment can go to a quad weekly attitude adjustment with little fear of reprocushion.
Course, could I really afford it, probably not.
"God of Rock, thank you for this chance to kick ass. "
I don't think producing brains in labs will eliminate the need for brains in politcs, so Republicans will still be useful.
I'm thinking that you meant, W. A. Mozart, but he wan't deaf.
Then I think, maybe you mean L. van Beethoven, but his deafness was late onset, not a birth defect, plus it's arguable (because it's subjective) that his very best music came after his hearing loss.
So, the question remains, Mozard????
Exam 4/C again. Maybe I'll do better this time.
The heart receives signals from the brain stem (as well as chemical signals like adrenaline), but it's controlled by its own pacemaker node and will tick along just fine even if the nerve from the brain stem is disrupted.
Sustainability and energy independence essay
However what about genetic defect that lead to brains like those of Einstein?
If you're really worried about that sort of thing, I've got bad news for you. The possibility still exists that we're losing Einstein level geniuses forever, today. Einstein wouldn't have done any science if he wasn't given an education in physics. And it's hard to discover relativity if you're dying in a mud hut somewhere.
On average, fifteen thousand children died yesterday of starvation and malnutrition: we don't know if any of them were Einstein level material. It's not likely, but then, Einstein was something of a rarity to begin with. As an international society, we don't care about this concern; at least, not enough to do anything about it.
So, if the risk of losing an Einstein today doesn't deter us, why should it do so in the future, especially when there are other potential benefits to be reaped? Right or wrong, I don't see this concern as being anything that would slow anyone down.
--
AC
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-06/uof -fft061005.php
- Zav - Imagine a Beowulf cluster of insensitive clods...
...Chris Reeve can finally... oh wait. Never mind.
Good, as a TBI, Traumatic Brain Injury, survivor if they need human guinea pigs then I volunteer.
FalconShould there be a Law?
The first application that leaps to mind is that regenerated cells could be used to replace damanged or aged cells somehow, but is that really possible?
Nope, neurons and glial cells can't be readily replaced. As shown by this webpage, the nervous system . Each neuron may have dozens synaptic connections via dendrites and axons to other neurons and humans have 100 billion neurons in thier brains. What happens is that each meuron sends out a number of dendrites that then can connect to a number of axons of other neurons. A new neuron may be able to "replace" another neuron but then it will have to make synaptic connections on it's own. These connections aren't exactly hardwired. Then as these connections are made new "learning" is required by the brain.
I'm in no way knowledgable about the whole thing, everything that's involved, but because I suffer from a TBI, Traumatic Brain Injury, the field is of interest to me.
FalconShould there be a Law?
Usefulness is useful, but pure science is fascinating, and the research potential here astonishes me.
One of my all-time favorite reads was Complexity, couched as the story of the Sante Fe Institute and its brilliant, eccentric, tortured visionaries. Each an expert in their academic (in the sense of "strict observance of conventional rules" as well as "pertaining to academia") field, including economics, biology and computer science, they pursued the interdisciplinary "science of complexity".
The universe is full of complex systems, which are not comprehensible except as the aggregate of the interactions between autonomous agents: an economy consists of the transactions between buyers and sellers; the slime mold, depending on temperature and humidity, becomes a slowly-moving glob of brown goop, or simply vanishes as the individual cells go their own way; computers have not yet formed their own scientific community, but, we suppose, they're working on it.
Brains, it would seem, are complex systems; there is no "chief brain cell," they form spontaneously based on interactions between autonomous brain cells. I want to know more about the "api" of brain cells, and this article would seem to suggest the opening of a rather large door.
I wonder if I could have my skull custom made for room to grow more brain matter. Probobly improbable?
Marvin, is that you?
So long, and thanks for all the fish
FalconShould there be a Law?
That's a problem I see with eugenics, how much expectation will a parent put on their children. Then again those expectations don't exist just with eugenics, today more and more parents are using their children to "fulfill" their own hopes, especially in sports. Parents are getting so they push their children to be the best in whatever sport they are interested in, be it soccer (soccer moms anyone?), gymnastics, football, or what have you. These parents aren't content to let their children enjoy play and be children. I don't mind parents encouraging children to do the best they can but the parents need to let them have fun doing so.
FalconShould there be a Law?
I wonder if we could make them run Linux?