theseamusjames5 hours 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.
autoexec4 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.
sicktriple2 hours ago
Not really, since this is just inventing new and exciting ways to give mice more brain diseases
M95Dan hour ago
This is just inventing new and exciting ways to give mice more human brain diseases.
WesolyKubeczek21 minutes ago
As if mice didn’t have enough of their own brain diseases!
autoexec4 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.
jdalsgaardan hour ago
Forget Artificial Intelligence, _Real Intelligence_ is coming...
(Background material: https://hitchhikers.fandom.com/wiki/Mice)
bygosh5 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.
rf152 hours ago
I think you just misread that - the adjective independent refers to ethical, not scrutiny /s
zhaoziyuan20005 hours ago
Does this remind anyone of that novel Flowers for Algernon..?
lioeters4 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?
fc417fc8022 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.
someothherguyy2 hours ago
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-026-11032-2
Developmental xenocortication using human-derived organoids in mice
freebsd_lovefes26 minutes ago
Humans genetically-engineered with no cerebral cortex fitted with a whole bunch of computing technology inside the craniums - coming to a city near you soon.
Oh, wait, has that already happened, and you thought someone was going to tell you about it? They thought they couldn't fake all the head MRI scans to cover up for THAT?
Multiple variations of this reality may exist. I'd so read a thriller book about this...but none have been written, strangely enough.
eluru26 minutes ago
i was expecting for cat-humans but this will do
yawpitchan hour ago
Narf!
bsimpson4 hours ago
They're Pinky and the Brain...yes: Pinky and the Brain...
seydor3 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.
edoceo3 hours ago
Hook that thing up to the Torment Nexus and see what the next tech-bubble will be!
yieldcrv4 hours 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
MeteorMarc3 hours ago
No, they are just grumpy.
d--b5 hours ago
Sounds like “the scret of NIMH” an animated movie from the 80s, where intelligent mice escape a science lab.
0xDECAF5 hours ago
ed...ward?
LoganDark5 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)
fnordpiglet3 hours ago
I for one welcome our part human part mouse brain overlords.
redder2330 minutes ago
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