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Subscribe to RSSThe Next Media Animation team in Taiwan takes on the "Neanderthal baby" controversy.
You know a story has gone viral when the gang at Taiwan's Next Media Animation makes fun of it — and such is the case with Harvard geneticist George Church's recent comments about the prospects for cloning a Neanderthal baby.
The German magazine Der Spiegel's interview with Church was misconstrued in some quarters as suggesting that the scientist himself was looking for a surrogate mother willing to carry a cloned Neanderthal embryo. In his book "Regenesis," Church says such a scenario is getting closer to the point of possibility. But he's definitely not planning to do the experiment himself. This week, he told the Boston Herald that his original point was lost in translation.
Church and his colleagues are working on a wide array of genetic-engineering technologies, including techniques that could semi-automate the process of producing stem cell lines with artificially added genetic tweaks. Someday, that procedure could give humans new traits, such as enhanced immunity to disease, or enhancements in strength or intelligence. The Neanderthal genome could point the way to such genetic novelties. But if you're looking for a Neanderthal pregnancy, don't bother looking in Church's direction. Instead, have a look at NMA's cartoon — and have yourself a laugh.
More about future evolution:
- Why a Neanderthal clone is such a bad idea
- How synthetic biology will change us
- Human evolution at the crossroads
Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. To keep up with Cosmic Log as well as NBCNews.com's other stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box every weekday. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.
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My biggest fear is that the baby would be caged and studied like a lab rat. Or they would make a reality show like
The TRUMAN Show starring Jim Carey.
Maybe it would be called the NEW-MAN Show. Or...........................If he was....................
Bovine like? The MOO-MAN Show.
Filled with regret? The RUE-MAN Show.
Litigious? The SUE-MAN Show.
Raised in frigid temperatures or Vegas? The BLUE-MAN Show.
Riddled with infection? The GOO-MAN Show.
Stinky? The POO-MAN Show.
Pale? The BOO-MAN Show.
Bird like or a Government overthrower? The COO (COUP)-MAN Show.
Asian descent? The FU-MAN Show.
Owl like? The HOO-MAN Show.
Middle Eastern descent? The JEW-MAN Show (sorry)
A Brit with bowel problems? The LOO-MAN Show.
Ballet dancer? The TU-TU MAN Show.
Extremely Good looking? The WOO-MAN Show.
Lastly, what he would really be...The ZOO-MAN Show. That would be cruel so don't do it!!!!
Pa-Dow!!!
Reliable sources state that the NFL is actively attempting to engage the services of a willing surrogate mother. This could literally change the face of the NFL forever. Furthermore, the LA Raiders are already putting in thier bid for this child to be a first round draft choice. Build it and they will come!!!!
Don't we already have enough gun toting, bible thumping, tea bagging, anti-gay, pro-life, republicans with out cloning neanderthals?
@tapdancintgirl: The Oakland Raiders are offering DNA samples from their fans to help complete the Neanderthal genome. Typically an individual can be expected to have 2-3% of Neanderthal genes in their own DNA. The Oakland Raiders have submitted hundreds of samples, but expect the genome to be complete after analyzing only two.
Scientists definitely do plan to clone prehistoric Mammoth elephants. Can two be surrogated at the same time by the same mom? A Mammoth and a Neanderthal to ride it.
What land will the Neanderthal claim as it's ancestral homeland? Are we sure we want to surrogate another implacable claim? Hmmm...petroleum is the decay product of prehistoric forests...wherever that is found would smell like home to Neanderthal-Guy. That would be one richy-rich son of a gun if he made that claim stick - bet Dicky Cheney would quickly become his pal maybe even promote a war in his behalf.
Can you see where this is going? Eeek. Just don't let Neanderthal-Guy get hold of a Bible, it is amazing what interpretations primitives can find in that book.
@J.P
Nice try but you're saying bull I believe,
Fossil fuels existed long before Neanderthal, the added formation since would be considered negligible. Hence that claim has no chance to stick.
Besides the original land of Neanderthal was Europe where there is some evidence he may have been assimilated by Homo Sapiens. So that is settled at least.
Anyway, resuscitating Neanderthal is a fantasy when we see the current level of understanding between peoples of the same race. No need to create another race of human to double the conflicts.
Finally, what makes you think they would be so primitives in today's world? We have no idea of their past level of intelligence, they might as well be more intelligent than us.
Do you know there's much evidence that people ate them (neanderthal) also that the notion that Europeans (& Europeans alone) bread with them is pretty much proven as white suprematist claptrap by the genome (and other) projects finding that in Africa near the oldest human remains there are villages with more genetic diversity than the entire world outside of Africa?
This makes me very curious about exactly whose doing this and why.
Europeans ate bread with them?...
That some European ancestors interbred with them is not "white supremacist" nonsense, it's a scientific fact.
Originally, scientists were not sure if the two species were biologically compatible enough to even produce offspring, let alone if humans and neanderthals ever did the nasty.
But when scientists recently managed to sequence the neanderthal genome, they got the answer - neanderthal-specific genes found in modern Europeans. (For example, IIRC it turns-out that red hair is actually a neanderthal trait!)
It's not a matter of "genetic diversity", but rather the discovery of specific neanderthal genes. If all humans had these genes, then it is possible that we and the neanderthals inherited them from a common ancestor millions of years ago. But the fact that neanderthal genes are only found in a portion of our population (that also happened to cohabitate the same regions (and in some cases, even the same caves), as neanderthals), but these genes are not found in the "cradle of humanity", Africa, indicates it it the result of more recent inter-species hanky-panky.
(There was a controversial claim by a couple of British scientists that this was instead from a common ancestor species, but a more detailed genetic analysis has since determined that this interbreeding occurred well after the migration of humans out of Africa.)
See -
http://www.technologyreview.com/view/428880/genetic-analysis-solves-human-neanderthal-interbreeding-puzzle/
About us eating them (or vice versa), I have no idea. But given our own species' violent nature (along with the competition for scarce resources during the last ice age), I imagine it is quite possible that our ancestors wiped them out!
Alan,
I understand what Church was trying to say and I understand that it's all theoretical at this point. But in the not too distant future someone is going to try and clone a T-REX or a Mastadon or perhaps even a Neanderthal. While I find the T-Rex and Mastadon ideas interesting (I'd pay to see a real live T-Rex). The idea of cloning a child is unthinkable and there should be international conventions, laws, legislation, whatever is needed to prevent such a thing from ever happening.
Just my two cents worth.
For some reason, Jurassic Park popped up in my head. I too would like to see a dinosaur, but there is still a red flag and bright neon sign flashing. Not because of any unethical issues, but the fact that it's been known throughout history that nature likes throwing curveballs. If they do clone a dinosaur....make it a herbivore and of the tiny variety. The larger they are, the more damage they could do. Think of a mad elephant in charge mode.
The last non-avian dinosaur lived about 65 million years ago - there simply isn't any intact DNA left to clone any kind. Jack Horner is actually trying to make avian dinosaurs (he wants to use a chicken) more like their non-avian ancestors with genetic engineering. I think it's a pretty neat idea.
Link to his book- "How to build a dinosaur" http://www.amazon.com/How-Build-Dinosaur-Evolution-ebook/dp/B001TLZEDW
Never say never, Emily!
Years ago, scientists used to think nothing besides fossilized bone could survive for millions of years.
But then someone accidentally broke a large T. Rex bone in half, and they were amazed to discover dinosaur soft tissue inside, including what appeared to be bone marrow blood vessels and cells! -
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7285683/ns/technology_and_science-science/t/scientists-recover-t-rex-soft-tissue/
Scientists then said there was no way that proteins could survive for million of years.
But then the same folks were able to isolate actual dinosaur proteins from this soft tissue, several of which were an exact match to chicken proteins, thus helping to cement the dinosaur-bird connection! -
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18075420/ns/technology_and_science-science/t/t-rex-analysis-supports-dino-bird-link/
They later discovered soft tissue inside a bone of another type of dino, which was in even better shape, with perfectly preserved intact bone cells! -
http://scienceblogs.com/notrocketscience/2009/04/30/dinosaur-proteins-cells-and-blood-vessels-recovered-from-brachylophosaurus/
(check-out the amazing pic of the dino cells at the top of this link!)
Scientists then said there was no way that DNA could survive for millions of years... (can you guess what's coming next?)...
But just recently, the same folks have announced the detection of actual DNA in the soft tissue found inside the bones of these two dinos! Skeptics tried to claim it must be microbiotic contamination, but biochemical tests have proven that the DNA is not from microbes, further tests to rule-out contamination also resulted in an antibody reaction specific to birds! -
http://phys.org/news/2012-10-analysis-dinosaur-bone-cells-ancient.html
Something else I noticed - if you look at the 1st two micro pics (B & E) in the last link, showing a fluorescent dye which attaches to DNA & glows red - is it just me, or doesn't it look like the dye is concentrated in what could be the nucleus of the preserved dino cells? Right where the (non-mitochondrial) genetic material in a normal cell would be found?!
Whether or not any of this could be sequenced is anybody's guess. But even fragments could be very useful! (and potentially fun, if you tried plugging them into a chicken!)
I have no doubt it will be done sooner or later. Actually I would like to see the cloning of a dinosaur. That would provide untold opportunity for scientific research.
As long as there are enough empty caves for them I don't see a problem.
There is no need to clone neanderthals, they are alive and well and screwing the world up everywhere they go. We know them as conservatives.
No, we know then as people who post silly political comments that have nothing to do with the article they are posting about.
Better a neanderthal than a Homo erectus (liberal)
At least that would make our brain capacity 50% larger than yours.
(But seriously, drop the ad hominems; they have virtually no value)
"Someday, that procedure could give humans new traits, such as enhanced immunity to disease, or enhancements in strength or intelligence."
Why does this sound like bioengineering a race of "supermen"?
What's the big deal? Half the guys my sister dated were Neanderthals!
Hey, I represent that remark! I mean, I resent that remark!
God created the Universe and man.... some may say that is preposterous.. I understand....
I say man trying to do the same is even more preposterous than the former.
And besides.... everyone knows that neanderthals currently roam the halls of congress.
Great puns, guys.
I really like Dr Horner's reverse engineering of a chicken. I think that I'd pay to see a Chickensaurus, or a Turkeysaurus. But once you get to reverse engineering a critter as large as an Emu, or Ostrich, I think it would get out of hand, and down right dangerous.
I don't get it. We already have a Neanderthal living among us. You never heard of Dick Cheney?
To get a living Neanderthal, just gene-splice Dick Cheney and Karl Rove then hatch it inside Sarah Palin.
There was actually a very interesting story about this called "N-Words" by Ted Kosmatka, a couple of years ago in which a population of Neanderthals is cloned and then, when they grow up they, quite naturally, meet and marry (and mate with) homo sapiens. It's one woman's story of her Neanderthal husband and part-Neanderthal son. I found it quite touching and thoughtful and pretty believable in terms of what we humans would do with another species in our midst. It can be found on the Escape Pod podcast (Episode 198) and also in a short story anthology called Seeds of Change, edited by John Joseph Adams.
We already have Neanderthal babies. They're called the GOP.
Why would we clone what we all ready have? Just check the voting records, they all voted for Obama............twice................. and that includes "workingpoor-2370498"
This video poked fun at the media not checking facts?? Coming from a Taiwanese agency that's pretty funny... Considering that the People's Daily Online (Chinese media outlet) reported N.Korea's Kim Jong Un as the Sexiest Man Alive based off of a story from The Onion...