Mini Neanderthal Brains Are Growing in Petri Dishes
Why are researchers cultivating and studying these mini brains? The reason, they say, is that these small neural lumps may reveal why Neanderthals died out and Homo sapiens went on to conquer much of the planet.
"Neanderthals are fascinating because they shared Earth with us, and there is now genetic evidence we actually bred with them," study leader Alysson Muotri, director of the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) Stem Cell Program, told Live Science. [11 Body Parts Grown in the Lab]
Perhaps genetic differences between Neanderthal and human brains explain their demise and our success, Muotri said. In other words, it's possible that humans achieved great technological advancements because we have sophisticated neural networks, while Neanderthals didn't.
Muotri presented the research, which has yet to be published in a peer-reviewed journal, at a UCSD conference called Imagination and Human Origins on June 1.
Full story at site
Why are researchers cultivating and studying these mini brains? The reason, they say, is that these small neural lumps may reveal why Neanderthals died out and Homo sapiens went on to conquer much of the planet.
"Neanderthals are fascinating because they shared Earth with us, and there is now genetic evidence we actually bred with them," study leader Alysson Muotri, director of the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) Stem Cell Program, told Live Science. [11 Body Parts Grown in the Lab]
Perhaps genetic differences between Neanderthal and human brains explain their demise and our success, Muotri said. In other words, it's possible that humans achieved great technological advancements because we have sophisticated neural networks, while Neanderthals didn't.
Muotri presented the research, which has yet to be published in a peer-reviewed journal, at a UCSD conference called Imagination and Human Origins on June 1.
Full story at site