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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsScientist Seeks 'Adventurous Human Woman' For Neanderthal Baby
'Adventurous Woman Needed as Surrogate for Neanderthal BabyAre you an adventurous human woman? Adventurous enough to be a surrogate mother for the first Neanderthal baby to be born in 30,000 years?
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" einen abenteuerlustigen weiblichen Menschen to act as a surrogate mother.
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What would that entail? According to a 2008 study of a Neanderthal infant skeleton (from which the above image is taken), "the head of the Neanderthal newborn was somewhat longer than that of a human newborn because of its relatively robust face," and Neanderthal women generally had a wider birth canal than human women. Neanderthal birth was simpler than human birth, because Neanderthal infants didn't have to rotate to get to the birth canal, but otherwise the processes were very similar. (Even so, I imagine all but the most adventurous of human women would opt for a C-section in this case.)
Once the baby's out, though, you're in good shape Neanderthal babies are thought to have grown much more quickly than their human counterparts. And Church seems to think that there'll be a Neanderthal craze, as he told Bloomberg Businessweek last year:
"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."
MORE:
http://gawker.com/5977130/could-you-be-the-adventurous-woman-scientists-need-to-give-birth-to-the-first-neanderthal-baby-in-30000-years
cali
(114,904 posts)WinkyDink
(51,311 posts)Buzz Clik
(38,437 posts)If you don't like cloning, I would suggest you get a bucket and a mop to clean up after your head explodes.
(but seriously, anyone who uses the popular press for scientific breakthroughs is highly suspect.)
Botany
(70,589 posts)BTW do they make cream of mastodon baby food?
JanMichael
(24,891 posts)but, "Neanderthal" has a certain ring to it.
RKP5637
(67,112 posts)warrior1
(12,325 posts)have the technology to do something, doesn't mean you should do it.
MynameisBlarney
(2,979 posts)What could POSSIBLY go wrong?
That man is insane.
datasuspect
(26,591 posts)until now.
IDemo
(16,926 posts)I find it very hard to believe that he is either actively seeking a volunteer, that a cloning attempt would succeed, or that it wouldn't violate ethics laws in any Western nation. I think it is more likely a wink of the eye by Church for some publicity.
RKP5637
(67,112 posts)is some really really strange sh** going on ... someplace ...
nolabear
(41,991 posts)Can you imagine giving birth to a child that is the subject of debate over its humanity, is an experiment, has no other creature like it on the face of the earth? That poor infant, and child, and adult.
Reminds me of Bradbury's "The Ugly Little Boy", in which a Neanderthal child is brought from the past. A truly painful read.
longship
(40,416 posts)For the obviously ethical reasons, which are multiple here. No MD that takes their oath seriously would ever sign on to such a project.
gulliver
(13,197 posts)petronius
(26,604 posts)Ted Kosmatka, N-words (I found it online through Google books in The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Sixth Annual Collection, Gardner Dozois, ed.)
--Snip--
The magazine showed a pale, red-haired Neanderthal boy standing with his adoptive parents, staring thoughtfully up at an outdated anthropology display at a museum. The wax Neanderthal man in the display carried a club. He had a nose from the tropics, dark hair, olive-brown skin and dark brown eyes. Before Hardings child, the museum display designers had supposed they knew what primitive looked like, and they had supposed it was decidedly swarthy.
Never mind that Neanderthals had spent ten times longer in light-starved Europe than a typical Swedes ancestors.
The redheaded boy on the cover wore a confused expression.
--Snip--
Excerpt here as well: http://www.johnjosephadams.com/seeds-of-change/?page_id=11
dembotoz
(16,844 posts)damn
wandy
(3,539 posts)frogmarch
(12,160 posts)Thirties Child
(543 posts)Which puts me in the 80th percentile. Also, I have the red hair gene, and we had two redheaded children. I think the NOVA show last week was right on - we likely didn't defeat the Neanderthals, but absorbed them.
But to bear a Neanderthal child - very sad.
frogmarch
(12,160 posts)you're part Neanderthal!
temporary311
(955 posts)who isnt fully sub-saharan african is part Neanderthal.
jpak
(41,760 posts)Morning Dew
(6,539 posts)Otherwise, count me out.
whistler162
(11,155 posts)Incitatus
(5,317 posts)The will get thousands of applicants
Beartracks
(12,821 posts)Yay, a new celebrity craze!
WTF?
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jmowreader
(50,563 posts)Someone called the day after they put the ad in the paper offering $10,000 for a woman to carry the Neanderthal baby. It was a teabagger.
"Hi! I see you are looking for a woman to have a Neanderthal baby. Well, I have three conditions."
'Okay.'
"First condition: My husband may never know."
'We can do that.'
"Second condition: The children must attend the First Church of the Sacred Rock every Sunday, and attend Sacred Rock Christian School."
'We can do that too.'
"And if I can pay in installments, sign me up."
TlalocW
(15,392 posts)That were going to overtake cats and dogs and most popular pet?
TlalocW
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)NorthCarolina
(11,197 posts)Last Stand
(472 posts)but I assume even Neanderthal's have standards.