From: Anders Sandberg (asa@nada.kth.se)
Date: Fri Jul 19 2002 - 07:42:00 MDT
I assume that by now everybody has heard of the following paper:
Anjen Chenn, Christopher A. Walsh, Regulation of Cerebral Cortical
Size by Control of Cell Cycle Exit in Neural Precursors, Science
Volume 297, Number 5580, Issue of 19 Jul 2002, pp. 365-369.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/297/5580/365
Engineered mice with extra beta-catenin developed enlarged brains
with more cortex area and folding similar to higher mammals. No
reports on performance (they were dissected nearly directly), I
guess we will have to wait. My guess is that they might be tricky
to rear (high metabolic demands, fragile skull) but it will be very
interesting to see what develops.
So now we have ways of making big-brained mice with extra learning
(the NMDA receptor hack), prolong their life (methusalah gene and
IGF gene therapy) and even make them phosphorescent! The
transrodents are coming! Luckily I have plenty of cheese.
-- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Anders Sandberg Towards Ascension! asa@nada.kth.se http://www.nada.kth.se/~asa/ GCS/M/S/O d++ -p+ c++++ !l u+ e++ m++ s+/+ n--- h+/* f+ g+ w++ t+ r+ !y
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