Posted on 01/20/2013 9:06:48 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
They're usually thought of as a brutish, primitive species.
So what woman would want to give birth to a Neanderthal baby?
Yet this incredible scenario is the plan of one of the world’s leading geneticists, who is seeking a volunteer to help bring man’s long-extinct close relative back to life.
Professor George Church of Harvard Medical School believes he can reconstruct Neanderthal DNA and resurrect the species which became extinct 33,000 years ago.
His scheme is reminiscent of Jurassic Park but, while in the film dinosaurs were created in a laboratory, Professor Church’s ambitious plan requires a human volunteer.
He said his analysis of Neanderthal genetic code using samples from bones is complete enough to reconstruct their DNA.
He said: ‘Now I need an adventurous female human.
‘It depends on a hell of a lot of things, but I think it can be done.’
Professor Church’s plan would begin by artificially creating Neanderthal DNA based on genetic code found in fossil remains. He would put this DNA into stem cells.
These would be injected into cells from a human embryo in the early stages of life.
It is thought that the stem cells would steer the development of the hybrid embryo on Neanderthal lines, rather than human ones...
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
No, I’m talking abour really smart.
Suppose that we brought Neanderthals back to life, and the reason they went extinct wasn’t because they were dumber. Suppose they were more intelligent than modern humans, and just happened to have a run of bad luck that wiped them out before they could develop technology.
Suppose that Neanderthals turned out to be genetically intelligent enough that when brought back and put into a modern world with modern education they absorbed everything we could give them, made straight A’s and advanced into our universities by age 14. Suppose they had eidetic memories and could typically grasp physics, chemistry and so forth pretty easily.
Imagine a world in which modern humans are outclassed by a different variety of human being.
Bigger issue: will the neanderthal be classified as human? How about a genetic construct with 10% chump DNA? 20%? 90%?
Well, they seem to have made tools and jewelry, and probably had language, so that sounds pretty human to me.
It seems we may have won out though because although they certainly had big enough brains, we were simply nerdier and more social and could probably talk more clearly:
http://news.discovery.com/history/archaeology/humans-neanderthals-120605.htm
So just like you’ve heard: Networking skills are important.
Oh - incidentally, if you have some European ancestry, like probably almost all Americans, then you’re probably part Neanderthal.
Not individually.
Modern humans tend to hunt in packs.
How's this for an explanation? A woman would stay with her own tribe, so any Neanderthal-CroMagnon baby with Cro-M mother would be incorporated into a Cro-M tribe and bring in Neandertal DNA. If the father was Cro-M, then the baby would be incorporated into Neandertal tribe.
Somehow, the title brought to mind AlGore!
ManBearPig himself. :-)
It was only a matter of time before someone wanted to make a Frankenbaby.
“professor seeks mother for cloned baby”
I thought Ward Churchill was a professor of social justice, when did he move into genetics?
based on genetic code found in fossil remains
fossils dont form in 33000 years -
At the present stage of technology, I’d say it’s impossible.
Furthermore, the method described would not produce a Neanderthal, but a Homo sapiens/Neanderthal chimera (organism consisting of a mixture of H. sapiens and Neanderthal cells). It would probably be rather odd looking. For instance, the skin would probably have a mottled appearance, due to different color skin genes in the two cell lines. To get the Neanderthal baby, one would have to cross two chimeras, with a 1/4 chance of the baby being a Neanderthal. That’s because the germ cells would be a mixture of Homo sapiens and Neanderthal cells.
Even if it were possible, a project like this would take a couple of generations. I don’t know that any independent review board would give it their ethical blessing.
Neanderthals *are* considered human. Any species with the "Homo" designation is human. We're the only human species alive, but we're not the only one that ever existed.
Under that theory, there would be no evidence of Neandertal DNA in the mitochondria of Cro-M. It would all be in the 23 pairs of chromosomes. I think that is what has been found.
BINGO! We have a winner!
Very interesting website. Thanks for the reference.
cool! where did you read that?
Do we really want to expand the liberal voter base?
The Neanderthal was the apex predator of Ice-Age Europe. He was highly intelligent but he did not think like we do at all, his mind-set was more like that of an African lion. You wouldn’t want him or a neighbor...
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