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One aspect of this that's interesting is the extent to which factors like the sound and pulse of the mother's heart, her movement, and sounds from the outside w
by wjbdvkjwbbvwdjk 9y ago
One aspect of this that's interesting is the extent to which factors like the sound and pulse of the mother's heart, her movement, and sounds from the outside world affect fetal development.
For example, this system is pumpless, while the rest of the system evolved in the presence of a pump. In mammals the vascular system is continuously monitoring and optimizing blood-vessel diameter as a function of the waves of blood flowing through them. You don't get that if you have an artificial heart.
I bet movement also plays a role in fetal brain development too.
Therefore ideally the bag should be hung from a robot arm programmed to move like a sheep moves (maybe from recordings of an actual sheep), including sleeping at night etc. And the bag should gently pulse as though there's a heart and lungs. Also the miserable factory where these clones develop should play sounds of open pasture and birds, sheep bleating etc. That way they will be properly developed lambs ready to go to the abattoir. (edit: sorry for the sad ending)
- aequitas 9y agoI believe this study is done as alternate treatment for premature born babies. In that respect these babies already miss this aspect in their development. I don't know how current incubators or treatments handle this or if the effect have been studied. But it makes me curious if it really makes a difference in longer term.
- Saad_M 9y agoYes and no. For the most premature babies in the low 20s week gestation they have minimal physical contact with their parents. However older preterm infants do receive Kangroo care with their mothers.
- ben_w 9y agoAs we rapidly convert science fiction into reality, the question in my (vegetarian) mind is this: Why not genetically engineer them to not have a brain? No brain, no chance it might suffer. The bare minimum of neurons needed for staying alive — pump heart, breathe, digest food — is tiny compared to a mamillian brain.
- TeMPOraL 9y agoAs a meat-eater, I'd welcome that. It would be a great way to step around the whole issue of animal suffering.
- maxerickson 9y agoWouldn't such technology be forever rooted in animal suffering? That is, I sort of doubt that the first attempts are 100% successful.
- TeMPOraL 9y agoI don't mind really; I don't see how developing it would involve more animal suffering than normal breeding of animals for slaughter.
- wjbdvkjwbbvwdjk 9y agowas thinking that too. Isn't there already a genetic condition where mammals can be born with no brain ? If so, CRISPR that up and there you go -- suffering-free meat in a convenient boil-in-the-bag format
- ben_w 9y agoThere is, anencephaly, but it normally causes stillbirths in humans.
- wjbdvkjwbbvwdjk 9y agoor, going the other way, it reminds me of a Stephen Baxter novel where humans were exclusively fed by "mummy cows", which were genetically-engineered cows who could provide meat while staying alive and actually enjoyed having meat taken from their bodies
- danso 9y agoWait, wasn't this a joke in Douglas Adams's Restaurant at the End of the Universe?
- LordKano 9y agoI wonder how much my/our reaction to heartbeat sounds in movies and music is a psychological remnant of the time we spent listening to our mothers' heartbeats.
- imron 9y agoOnce again, Kano revealing his obsession with beating hearts.
- alkonaut 9y ago> One aspect of this that's interesting is the extent to which factors like the sound and pulse of the mother's heart, her movement, and sounds from the outside world affect fetal development. Not to mention the influence of everything else that the mother provides (hormone levels, immune system, ...). I mean there are people that research whether c-sections vs. natural birth has a measurable impact on human children (and believe it has), for example. In that context, this would seem like a big diffrence. And unlike things like sounds and mechanics these are things that are quite poorly understood. How humans develop their immune systems, get autoimmune diseases and allergies etc is tricky stuff. What this will do is at least help figure out what comes from where, because you can use identical twin animals where one is born naturally and one artificially.