Alysson Muotri: Neanderthal Brains in a Bottle

So this is not exactly a #Neanderthal brain in a bottle, but it gestures in that direction. Here, we are finding a new way of understanding what makes us human and how we became human. Alysson Muotri just published a study of Neanderthal brains that seems to be taken straight out of science fiction. His team took a mutation from Neanderthals, and edited into human cells. These cells were grown up into "brain organoids" in a dish. Because of that single mutation, the brain organoids looked differently and worked differently too. Like all discoveries, this one raises as many questions as it answers. This one in particular brings in a new way to the grand question: what does it mean to be human? See his study here: https://science.sciencemag.org/conten... And the news coverage here: https://www.nature.com/articles/d4158... https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/... [0:00] Intro [0:53] Alysson Summarizes his article on Neanderthals [2:53] Choosing Nova1 [4:42] The 61 Mutations and Expectations [5:25] The Differences of Nova1 in Archaic Humans and Modern Humans [8:14] The History of the Project [10:03] Organoids [11:34] Clarification of the term “Organoid” [13:29] A Picture of Organoids [15:06] Differences between Neanderthal Organoids and Human Organoids [19:18] Alysson’s Presentation at Carta [20:53] Types of Experiments that were run on Organoids [22:12] Ruling out Trivial Explanations [28:06] Surprising Results [32:43] Splicing Results within Organoids [35:35] Adding back in all the Mutations from a Neanderthal [36:32] The Neanderthal Debate [40:02] Differences between Skulls [41:17] The Debate Continues [46:58] How Far is Too Far? [52:19] Closing Thoughts ---- Peaceful Science is making space for differences with a civic practice of science. Support us for just $1, $5, or $10 per month, to gain access to exclusive benefits.   / peacefulscience