Scientist Seeks 'Adventurous Human Woman' For Neanderthal Baby 697
theodp writes "Harvard geneticist George Church recently told Der Spiegel he's close to developing the necessary technology to clone a Neanderthal, at which point all he'd need is an 'adventurous human woman' to be a surrogate mother for the first Neanderthal baby to be born in 30,000 years (article in German, translation to English). Church said, 'We have lots of Neanderthal parts around the lab. We are creating Neanderthal cells. Let's say someone has a healthy, normal Neanderthal baby. Well, then, everyone will want to have a Neanderthal kid. Were they superstrong or supersmart? Who knows? But there's one way to find out.'"
Re:Clone a mammoth first (Score:4, Informative)
Until sea level rose at the end of the last glaciation Wrangel Island was not an island so they just walked there. It probably didn't get cut off from the mainland until less than 10,000 years ago.
You don't know what you are saying, do you? (Score:5, Informative)
t of us (excepting most Africans and Chinese) have Neanderthal genes in us.
I suggest you go back and do more study.
Of all the human sub-species only the Africans do not have Neanderthal genes.
Re:Pretty sure we know (Score:3, Informative)
Asgard's a place name. You're thinking of Æsir.
Or not [wikia.com].
Re:You don't know what you are saying, do you? (Score:2, Informative)
Well, do the studies again by yourselves - Africans are the only homo sapiens, who did not interbreed - rest of the world have mixed genes. Do not know about chinese, but papua people did not interbreed with Neanderthals, but so called Denisovans.
Right now we are sure, that Neanderthals inhabited just Europe, Middle East and central Asia along with parts in Siberia.
Re:Kardashian? (Score:5, Informative)
Intrepid imaginaut (1970940): "Why do you think neanderthals had dark hair and brown eyes? Doesn't it seem a little odd that the only place you can find blonde hair, red hair, blue or green eyes and white skin also happens to be the same location that the neanderthals were mostly last seen in?"
Because
"A team at the University of Copenhagen have tracked down a genetic mutation which took place 6-10,000 years ago and is the cause of the eye colour of all blue-eyed humans alive on the planet today. [...] Originally, we all had brown eyes”, said Professor Eiberg from the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine. “But a genetic mutation affecting the OCA2 gene in our chromosomes resulted in the creation of a “switch”, which literally “turned off” the ability to produce brown eyes”. The OCA2 gene codes for the so-called P protein, which is involved in the production of melanin, the pigment that gives colour to our hair, eyes and skin. The “switch”, which is located in the gene adjacent to OCA2 does not, however, turn off the gene entirely, but rather limits its action to reducing the production of melanin in the iris – effectively “diluting” brown eyes to blue."
From http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080130170343.htm [sciencedaily.com]
"Neanderthal extinction hypotheses are plausible explanations on how Neanderthals became extinct around 30,000 years ago."
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neanderthal_extinction_hypotheses [wikipedia.org]
So, the Neanderthals died out some 20,000 years _before_ there were blue eyes.
And no, the large dinosaurs like T-Rex weren't around at that time either.
Re:You don't know what you are saying, do you? (Score:4, Informative)
Well, do the studies again by yourselves - Africans are the only homo sapiens, who did not interbreed - rest of the world have mixed genes. Do not know about chinese, but papua people did not interbreed with Neanderthals, but so called Denisovans.
Right now we are sure, that Neanderthals inhabited just Europe, Middle East and central Asia along with parts in Siberia.
Yes, and all humans who left Africa went through the Middle East where the Neaderthals were resident. All non-Africans are currently suspected of having Neanderthal DNA, while many Asians are also suspected of having some Denisovan DNA. It's not a settled matter, though, given difficulty in determining what is Neanderthal DNA when we share 99.7% of our base pairs with them.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neanderthal_admixture_theory#Neanderthals [wikipedia.org]
Re:Is that so? Look around you (Score:3, Informative)
I suggest you read up on Genghis Khan. He didn't just kill elites, but millions of humble civilians as well. And that in an age when 'millions' was a reasonable approximation to the entire population of an average country. Read up on the sack of Beijing, the sack of Urgench, the fall of Samarkand, and other atrocities of his reign.
As for the French Revolution: it wasn't the English who coined the phrase "la Terreur". It wasn't even aristocratic French (who were already dead or fled by then). It was ordinary, middle-class French men and women whose only crime was "being lukewarm about politics". "Benevolent revolution" my English arse.