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Blobs of brain tissue grown in a dish have spontaneously produced human-like brain waves for the first time — and the patterns look similar to those seen in premature babies. The ‘organoids’ aren’t real brains: they don’t contain all the cell types in a real cortex and they lack any connections to other brain regions. Nevertheless, the advance could eventually help scientists to overcome the practical and ethical difficulties of studying real fetal brains. But the organoids raise their own ethical dilemmas. “The closer they get to the preterm infant, the more they should worry,” says neuroscientist Christof Koch.
How to turn your interests into a career
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https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-07357-2?WT.ec_id=NATURE-20181115&utm_source=nature_etoc&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20181115&sap-outbound-id=0CB4F4C9F58961C33B0E76DCA57749485B8CB040
Sydney Brenner’s 10-on-10: The Chronicles of Evolution
Book
Spanning 14 billion years and 10 timescales, this scientific chronicle (brainchild of Nobel-prizewinning geneticist Sydney Brenner) addresses the monumental question of how humanity has come to dominate Earth. Among the 24 prominent scientists and thinkers who contribute are mathematician John Barrow on the habitable zone, biotechnologists Giulia Rancati and Norman Pavelka on cellular complexity, neuroscientist Atsushi Iriki on the evolution of human higher cognition and social scientist Helga Nowotny on our “radically open future”. A lavishly illustrated, thought-provoking ride.