5 ms·
Mice grow bigger brains when given this stretch of human DNA
- pavel_lishin 1y ago[flagged]
- tracker1 1y ago[flagged]
- irrational 1y agoThe book is better, but... yeah, this was my first thought too.
- msie 1y ago[flagged]
- Buttons840 1y ago"The same thing we do every night..."
- rolph 1y ago[flagged]
- sshine 1y agoHeck, if you give mice all of our DNA, they’ll become exactly like us!
- hoppp 1y agoBut what if they get to keep their mouse DNA too? Do we get 2 meter large super smart mice? Sounds like a horror movie
- unyttigfjelltol 1y agoSo when you give the mouse some human DNA, do you then need to send the proposal to the Institutional Review Board, since these mice are a tiny bit human?
- curtisszmania 1y ago[dead]
- robwwilliams 1y agoNeed to read this asap, but 6.5% is an exceedingly small effect size and not robust given many confounding developmental and technical factors. The typical coefficient of error between volumes of even large brain regions in genetically identical mice is usually well over 5%. And I suspect the transgene was only tested on one genetic background—-usually C57BL/6J. Will emend this post tomorrow with corrections after reading carefully. I can say with reasonsble assurance that no one has measured and weighed more mouse brains than I have ;-) (except you John Wong)
- gwerbret 1y agoYou should have read the paper (or at least the abstract) first, as they used macaque and human organoid models, too. :) But yes, the overall effects of the region of DNA in question (an enhancer) are fairly small. The preprint is available here: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.04.10.588953v1.full.pdf https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.04.10.588953v1....
- robwwilliams 1y agoI have read it now. Comment below. As to an increase in mouse neocortical volume—they have ZERO data. Look at their figures 1g and 1h and weep for the crap reviewing.
- vasco 1y ago> can say with reasonsble assurance that no one has measured and weighed more mouse brains than I have Out of curiosity how many would that be? Thousands? Tens of thousands? How long does it take to measure a mouse brain? When you do it does someone remove them for you or you also have to remove them before measuring?
- robwwilliams 1y agoPersonal dissections about 2-3K (lifetime). Total over 35 years of the lab: about 20,000.
- hirenj 1y ago
- giardini 1y ago[flagged]
- protocolture 1y ago[flagged]
- Onavo 1y ago[flagged]
- ipsum2 1y agoMeta comment: 11/13 comments currently are pop-culture references (Flowers for Algernon, Pinky and the Brain, other movies) or generic phrases and only 2 comments relate to the actual article. I've been on HN for over a decade, and this is the worst it's ever been.
- jagger27 1y agoCheck out some of the timestamps in the links in last line of the guidelines. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- ipsum2 1y agoI am aware of the guidelines, considering how long I've been here. However, I have offered proof, that over 80% of the comments do not contribute anything and are exactly like those of Reddit.
- lucianbr 1y agoAgreed. But what can you do? People will comment what they will, and vote as they like.
- jonplackett 1y agoBut are they any smarter?
- swivelmaster 1y agoThey’re into crypto now.
- blooalien 1y ago> But are they any smarter? > They’re into crypto now. So that's a "No" then... ;)
- metalman 1y agocomment on the comments geneticly spliced animals and humand are now real, but for many years have occupied a specific place in sci fi, where there are enhanced animals and humans, hybrids, and we have a huge subculture of "furryies" so the headline is pushing lots of buttons. The thing is that it's going to happen, and the pieces are here right now to make hybrids, and even alter a life forms DNA after birth. The point bieng if anybody is getting triggered by the whole kids and smart phones thing, best just think of that as quaint , as there is a massive market for some little adorable critter that can talk.....brace yourselves and nothing can make that possibility go away now
- blooalien 1y agoAnd thus began the Mousepocalypse... (:shrug: I get it... Sore point... The apocalypse isn't a humorous thing to joke about, what with it being in the midst of actually happening and all ... but if I don't try to find myself a little giggle here and there once in a while I'ma literally go insane, so whatever. Down-vote away. Don't really care anymore.)
- AngryData 1y agoThat is neat but doesn't mean much by itself without some kind of test on cognition. The size of a creatures brain doesn't really correlate with intelligence very well.
- pcthrowaway 1y agoGiven the standard practice in lab experimentation using mice (which is to "dispose" of them after their usefulness for a test is done) I'm extremely troubled by the idea of gene editing experimentation using mice to make them more intelligent (their standard intelligence would already be surprising to many people). While I already think it's unethical to use animals the way we do, the idea that we're experimenting with how close we can get to bestowing them with human intelligence before killing them is saddening.