Friday, March 8, 2013

Making Animals Smarter Using Human Brain Cells

It sounds like something from a Disney family movie, but it is really happening. Some Canadian scientists planted some human brain cells into a baby mouse. The brain cells fully bonded with the mouse brain cells resulting in very mentally advanced mice. They were able to travel through a maze in two tries instead of the many tries that it would normally take a normal mouse. The brain cells they transplanted were largely ignored in brain studies before, because the focus was on the neurons rather than the gray matter. The human glial progenitors or glia gray matter was the material implanted into the brain.

What can we use this for in the future. Could the factories of the future be filled with monkeys assembling products. Could we use animals to fly, hunt, fish and entertain us even more than we do now. Is it moral? The future could literally go to the dogs!! One of many links on the finding: Mice get smarter audio and story!