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Chinese Scientists Have Put Human Brain Genes In Monkeys -- And Yes, They May Be Smarter (technologyreview.com)
Scientists in southern China report that they've created several transgenic macaque monkeys with extra copies of a human gene suspected of playing a role in shaping human intelligence. "According to their findings, the modified monkeys did better on a memory test involving colors and block pictures, and their brains also took longer to develop -- as those of human children do," reports MIT Technology Review. "There wasn't a difference in brain size." From the report: The experiments, described on March 27 in a Beijing journal, National Science Review, and first reported by Chinese media, remain far from pinpointing the secrets of the human mind or leading to an uprising of brainy primates. Bing Su, the geneticist at the Kunming Institute of Zoology who led the effort, specializes in searching for signs of "Darwinian selection" -- that is, genes that have been spreading because they're successful. His quest has spanned such topics as Himalayan yaks' adaptation to high altitude and the evolution of human skin color in response to cold winters. [Instead of the FOXP2 gene famous for its potential link to human speech] Su was fascinated by a different gene: MCPH1, or microcephalin. Not only did the gene's sequence differ between humans and apes, but babies with damage to microcephalin are born with tiny heads, providing a link to brain size. With his students, Su once used calipers and head spanners to the measure the heads of 867 Chinese men and women to see if the results could be explained by differences in the gene.
By 2010, though, Su saw a chance to carry out a potentially more definitive experiment -- adding the human microcephalin gene to a monkey. China by then had begun pairing its sizable breeding facilities for monkeys (the country exports more than 30,000 a year) with the newest genetic tools, an effort that has turned it into a mecca for foreign scientists who need monkeys to experiment on. To create the animals, Su and collaborators at the Yunnan Key Laboratory of Primate Biomedical Research exposed monkey embryos to a virus carrying the human version of microcephalin. They generated 11 monkeys, five of which survived to take part in a battery of brain measurements. Those monkeys each have between two and nine copies of the human gene in their bodies. After putting the monkeys inside MRI machines to measure their white matter, they gave them computerized memory tests. "According to their report, the transgenic monkeys didn't have larger brains, but they did better on a short-term memory quiz, a finding the team considers remarkable," reports MIT Technology Review.
By 2010, though, Su saw a chance to carry out a potentially more definitive experiment -- adding the human microcephalin gene to a monkey. China by then had begun pairing its sizable breeding facilities for monkeys (the country exports more than 30,000 a year) with the newest genetic tools, an effort that has turned it into a mecca for foreign scientists who need monkeys to experiment on. To create the animals, Su and collaborators at the Yunnan Key Laboratory of Primate Biomedical Research exposed monkey embryos to a virus carrying the human version of microcephalin. They generated 11 monkeys, five of which survived to take part in a battery of brain measurements. Those monkeys each have between two and nine copies of the human gene in their bodies. After putting the monkeys inside MRI machines to measure their white matter, they gave them computerized memory tests. "According to their report, the transgenic monkeys didn't have larger brains, but they did better on a short-term memory quiz, a finding the team considers remarkable," reports MIT Technology Review.
Soon there will monkey quotas at colleges and businesses...
did Planet of the Apes teach us nothing?
Before we go anywhere toward blurring the lines between human and non-human I want to see some agreements on rules. We may seen be able to grow Neanderthals and create various human / animal chimeras, but they could end up in a very fuzzy and controversial legal space. How much and what types of human DNA gives something rights.
We are approaching this from another direction (but possibly very slowly) through AI.
One of their large yellow-haired orangutans escaped from the lab a few years ago, last seen on a cargo ship headed for the USA. It has light-colored rings around its eyes, and reportedly likes KFC, Big Macs, and bricks. The researchers are not really concerned because it wasn't one of their more promising apes.
If you have any spare Smart Monkeys laying about, please send us some.
We would like to replace most of our elected government as we feel Intelligent Monkeys could not possibly do any worse than what we've been forced to endure over the past few decades.
Thanks in advance
Your reply tells us why you don't learn from fiction -- it's because you don't question your own beliefs. A skeptical person is, above all, skeptical of their own beliefs. Fiction presents different perspectives and asks us to think "what if this is correct or partially correct?" and "what do I believe that's wrong?"
So no, we should not "treat fiction as if it is real" because that would be ridiculous. It means we should not treat our own beliefs as if they are real until they've been tested widely. If you can suspend your disbelief for a fictional story in your head, then you can suspend your disbelief to create a fact in your head that is actually false.