An example of a 6-month old brain organoid grown at Harvard University.
- Switzerland-based researchers successfully used Neanderthal DNA to grow a brain organoid.
- The team, led by Grayson Camp, used induced pluripotent stem cells, which are used to research diabetes, leukemia, and neurological disorders.
- By tracing back our ancestral lineage, the team hopes to better understand genetic disease susceptibility.
You know someone has received their 23andMe report when they write one of two social media posts: they boast of having Neanderthal DNA or being an ancestor of Genghis Khan. Sure, it's a bit strange to take pride in a lineage filled with pillaging and murder, yet that's often how we view history from afar, downplaying shadowy events while championing warrior ancestry.
Let's move on to Neanderthals. The common understanding of evolutionary biology goes something like this: chimps to humans with a period of Neanderthal intermediaries along the way—the "starting to lose hair" phase. Of course, the picture is more complex.
The line from Australopithecus to Homo sapiens is not straight. There was Homo neanderthalensis (Man from Neander Vally), as well as Homo erectus (Upright Man), Homo soloensis (Man from the Solo Valley), Homo floresiensis (Dwarf man from Flores), Homo denisova (Man from Siberia), Homo rudolfensis (Man from Lake Rudolf), and Homo ergaster (Working Man).
What happened to all of these intriguing relatives? Most likely, Homo sapiens killed them. Our forebears procreated with whatever combinations worked, most famously Neanderthals, as recently as 40,000 years ago. Today an estimated 40 percent of Neanderthal genome lives on in 2 percent of modern, non-African humans (although the idea that Neanderthals and Africans didn't mingle is now being challenged). The Neanderthal genome is the topic of an exciting new study, published in the journal Cell Stem Reports.
Can Stem Cells Reverse Aging? With Dr. David Agus
In 2010, Swedish geneticist Svante Pääbo first mapped the Neanderthal genome. He successfully extracted and sequenced Neanderthal DNA, opening up an entirely new field of genetic research. Evolving on that work, a team lead by Grayson Camp at the Institute of Molecular and Clinical Opthalmology in Basel, Switzerland has grown Neanderthal DNA-containing brain tissue for the first time.
The team used induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC), which are normally derived from human skin or blood cells. Stem cells are biological gold. By reprogramming these cells back to an embryonic-like state, researchers can develop a wide range of human cells for therapeutic purposes. This is exactly what Camp hopes this research on the Neanderthal genome will help accomplish.
Genetic codes reveal secrets around biological development and susceptibility to disease. Since stem cells can resemble brain, stomach, skin, kidney, and intestinal (among others) human tissues, their range of utility is endless. Researchers are hopeful that stem cells will help combat the ravages of diabetes, leukemia, and neurological disorders, among numerous other diseases.
As the team writes, Neanderthal DNA provides a wealth of genetic resources, including "skin and hair color, immune response, lipid metabolism, skull shape, bone morphology, blood coagulation, sleep patterns, and mood disorders."
Fabien Danjan of CNRS (French Research Institut Center) introduces embryonic stem cells in a mouse embryo to set a genetically modified line, on February 9, 2012.
Photo: Anne-Christine Poujoulat/AFP via Getty Images
Analyzing genome sequences from 173 mostly European participants, they were able to identity Neanderthal haplotypes (an inherited group of genes from a single parent). Alleles (gene variants) were identified for digestive function, immune response, and skin color. Camp believes this research is beneficial for studying human developmental processes.
After identifying Neanderthal genes, the team grew brain organoids, 3D blobs of brain tissue barely a few millimeters in size. Organoids are diverse resources in laboratory settings, especially in drug treatment research. Cancer treatment protocols are often tested on these blobs, for example.
While his team's work is exciting, Camp warns that this is no science fiction experiment.
"These are human cells, they're not Neanderthal cells but human cells that have Neanderthal DNA naturally inside them. This is totally different to Jurassic Park. It's more about studying the mechanism than try to recreate something."
While these culture systems are not yet optimal, the process has begun. Camp is interested in studying other Homo ancestors, such as Denisovan DNA. The further we dial back the clock, the better we understand our origins. If that path leads to treatments or cures for some of humanity's most prolific killers, the backpedaling will be worth it.
--
Stay in touch with Derek on Twitter, Facebook and Substack. His next book is "Hero's Dose: The Case For Psychedelics in Ritual and Therapy."
- Ancient Neanderthal DNA Shows What They Ate—And Who They ... ›
- Neanderthals could speak, like we do - Big Think ›
As part of a new exhibition, the worlds of culture and technology collide, bringing sound to the colors of abstract art pioneer Wassily Kandinsky.
Kandinsky had synesthesia, where looking at colors and shapes causes some with the condition to hear associated sounds. With the help of machine learning, virtual visitors to the Sounds Like Kandinsky exhibition, a partnership project by Centre Pompidou in Paris and Google Arts & Culture, can have an aural experience of his art.
An eye for music
Kandinsky's synesthesia is thought to have heavily influenced his painting. Seeing yellow summoned up trumpets, evoking emotions like cheekiness; reds produced violins portraying restlessness; while organs representing heavenliness he associated with blues, according to the exhibition notes.
Virtual visitors are invited to take part in an experiment called Play a Kandinsky, which allows them to see and hear the world through the artist's eyes.
Kandinsky's synesthesia is thought to have heavily influenced his 1925 painting Yellow, Red, Blue.Image: Guillaume Piolle/Wikimedia Commons
In 1925, the artist's masterpiece, "Yellow, Red, Blue", broke new ground in the world of abstract art, guiding the viewer from left to right with shifting shapes and shades. Almost a century after it was painted, Google's interactive tool lets visitors click different parts of the artwork to journey through the artist's description of the colors, associated sounds and moods that inspired the work.
But Google's new toy is not the only tool developed to enhance the artistic experience.
Artist Neil Harbisson has developed an artificial way to emulate Kandinsky by turning colors into sounds. He has a rare form of color blindness and sees the world in greyscale. But a smart antenna attached to his head translates dominant colors into musical notes, creating a real-world soundtrack of what's in front of him. The invention could open up a new world for people who are color blind.
Reprinted with permission of the World Economic Forum. Read the original article.
The United States of America, land of the free, is home to 5 percent of the world's population but 25 percent of its prisoners. The cost of having so many people in the penal system adds up to $80 billion per year, more than three times the budget for NASA. This massive system exploded in size relatively recently, with the prison population increasing by six-fold in the last four decades.
Ten percent of these prisoners are kept in private prisons, which are owned and operated for the sake of profit by contractors. In theory, these operations cost less than public prisons and jails, and states can save money by contracting them to incarcerate people. They have a long history in the United States and are used in many other countries as well.
However, despite the pervasiveness of private contractors in the American prison system, there is not much research into how well they live up to their promise to provide similar services at a lower cost to the state. The little research that is available often encounters difficulties in trying to compare the costs and benefits of facilities with vastly different operations and occasionally produces results suggesting there are few benefits to privatization.
A new study by Dr. Anita Mukherjee and published in the American Economic Journal: Economic Policy joins the debate with a robust consideration of the costs and benefits of private prisons. Its findings suggest that some private prisons keep people incarcerated longer and save less money than advertised.
Mississippi Blues
The study focuses on prisons in Mississippi. Despite its comparatively high rate of incarceration, Mississippi's prison system is very similar to that of other states that also use private prisons. Demographically, its system is representative of the rest of the U.S. prison system, and its inmates are sentenced for similar amounts of time.
The state attempts to get the most out of its privatization efforts, as a 1994 law requires all contracts for private prisons in Mississippi to provide at least a 10 percent cost savings over public prisons while providing similar services. As a result, the state seeks to maximize its savings by sending prisoners to private institutions first if space if available.
While public and private prisons in Mississippi are quite similar, there are a few differences that allow for the possibility of cost savings by private operators — not the least of which is that the guards are paid 30 percent less and have fewer benefits than their publicly employed counterparts.
The results of privatization
The graph depicts the likelihood of release for public (dotted line) vs. private (solid line) prison inmates. At every level of time served, public prisoners were more likely to be released than private prisoners.Dr. Anita Mukherjee
The study relied on administrative records of the Mississippi prison system between 1996 and 2013. The data included information on prisoner demographics, the crimes committed, sentence lengths, time served, infractions while incarcerated, and prisoner relocation while in the system, including between public and private jails. For this study, the sample examined was limited to those serving between one and six years and those who served at least a quarter of their sentence. This created a primary sample of 26,563 bookings.
Analysis revealed that prisoners in private prisons were behind bars for four to seven percent longer than those in public prisons, which translates to roughly 85 to 90 extra days per prisoner. This is, in part, because those in private prison serve a greater portion of their sentences (73 percent) than those in public institutions (70 percent).
This in turn might be due to the much higher infraction rate in private prisons compared to public ones. While only 18 percent of prisoners in a public prison commit an infraction, such as disobeying a guard or possessing contraband, the number jumps to 46 percent in a private prison. Infractions can reduce the probability of early release or cause time to be added to a sentence.
It's unclear why there are so many more infractions in private prisons. Dr. Mukherjee suggests it could be the result of "harsher prison conditions in private prisons," better monitoring techniques, incentives to report more of them to the state before contract renewals, or even a lackadaisical attitude on the part of public prison employees.
What does all this cost Mississippi?
The extra time served eats 48 percent of the cost savings of keeping prisoners in a private facility. For example, it costs about $135,000 to house a prisoner in a private prison for three years and $150,000 in the public system. But longer stays in private prisons reduce the savings from $15,000 to only $7,800.
As Dr. Mukherjee remarks, this cost is also just the finance. Some things are a little harder to measure:
"There are, of course, other costs that are difficult to quantify — e.g., the cost of injustice to society (if private prison inmates systematically serve more time), the inmate's individual value of freedom, and impacts of the additional incarceration on future employment. Abrams and Rohlfs (2011) estimates a prisoner's value of freedom for 90 days at about $1,100 using experimental variation in bail setting. Mueller-Smith (2017) estimates that 90 days of marginal incarceration costs about $15,000 in reduced wages and increased reliance on welfare. If these social costs were to exceed $7,800 in the example stated, private prisons would no longer offer a bargain in terms of welfare-adjusted cost savings."
It is possible that the extra time in jail provides benefits that counter these costs, such as a reduced recidivism rate, but this proved difficult to determine. Though it was not statistically significant, there was some evidence that the added time actually increased the rate of recidivism. If that's true, then private prisons could be counterproductive.
