Don't these scientists watch any movies? If they watched any movies, they would know that this kind of thing is never a good idea.
Scientists create big-brained mice
Altering a single gene gives mice human-like brains. Mice with the altered gene developed large, folded brains, right, that looked like human brains... big brains... brains so large they have to fold up, much as human brains do, to fit inside the skull, researchers said Thursday.
IT IS NOT yet clear whether the mice are smarter -- they were all killed soon after birth -- but the scientists said they were surprised that one gene had such a strong effect and said they would do further experiments. "I know the most interesting question was whether they learned to play Mozart but we don't know," Dr. Christopher Walsh of Brigham and Womens Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston... said.... a protein called beta-catenin, which helps control cell division... a regulatory switch.... So Walsh and Chenn genetically engineered mice, adding extra beta-catenin that would become overactive specifically in brain tissue.... To their surprise, they report in Friday's issue of the journal Science, the mice developed large, folded brains that looked like human brains.
"We didn't expect to see the folds. We sort of expected the cerebral cortex would be big. We didn't expect it to be so big," Walsh said.... "The thinking power of the cerebral cortex is determined by surface area. It is basically a sheet," said Walsh.... His team will also genetically engineer more mice and let them develop, to see if they develop normally, and if they become more, or less, intelligent than normal...
(via boingboing.)
Posted by DeLong at July 19, 2002 01:06 PM | TrackbackBrad, the fundamental theorem of Experiments Which Shouldn't Be Done is that the scientists don't know better, in their Arrogance to Know That Which Man Was Not Meant to Know :)
Posted by: Barry on July 20, 2002 02:03 PMPrecisely: they have spent too much time in the lab, and not enough time watching old movies...
Brad DeLong
Posted by: Brad DeLong on July 20, 2002 03:20 PMOK, we've got brainier mice... So what? We are still not sure how much of human intelligence is inborn and how much is acquired in early childhood. Apparently, there is a quantum leap in learning language and social skills which happens around the fourth year of human life. Children learn to live in the world they live, however primitive or sophisticated it might happen to be. Human children brought up by animals, reportedly, can be reintegrated into human society only if they were young when recaptured. Otherwise, regardless of intellect, they learn the "language" and social skills of the host specie...
Speaking of movies, however, first one that comes to my mind here is Good Will Hunting -- a story of a young man who happened to be more intelligent than his surroundings... Will Hunting had a way out -- he transitioned from Southie to MIT campus. Where's a superintelligent mouse to go, provided it doesn't die from depression-related self-imposed starvation in its adolescence?
Posted by: Nikolai Chuvakhin on July 20, 2002 04:12 PMWell, as we know from movies, a superintelligent animal has only three possible fates:
1) A tragic life of loneliness and misunderstanding, followed by a tragic death.
2) A life spent organizing his less-intelligent fellows for revolution, followed by the overthrow of the human species.
3) A life spent wreaking havoc, causing terror, and inflicting destruction.
Brad DeLong
Posted by: Brad DeLong on July 20, 2002 08:28 PMDon't some of them become glowing balls of pure energy? :)
Posted by: Barry on July 20, 2002 09:34 PMOn his Eleven Day Empire weblog, James DiBenedetto draws the natural conclusion from this line of scientific research, and prepares for the worst:
"Well, all I have to say, in the event that this research proceeds to its logical, B-movie-esque conclusion, is: I wholeheartedly welcome our new superintelligent rodent overlords, and I pledge my undying allegience to their wise and beneficient rule over our planet..."
Posted by: Brad DeLong on July 21, 2002 11:00 PMOk, I agree that humans have exceptional learning abilities, and that those abilities are plastic for a longer time than those present in other animals. But the point is that this learning abilities MUST be innate by themselves (or guided by innately guided brain developmental schemes). If not, a monkey in Las Vegas would learn to cheat in poker at age 5.
Posted by: Joni Karanka on September 3, 2002 03:35 PM