Scientist Seeks 'Adventurous Human Woman' For Neanderthal Baby

[kpete]

'Adventurous’ Woman Needed as Surrogate for Neanderthal Baby
Are 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.

............................

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]

1. ok, this is just creepy and the scientist is a caricature

[WinkyDink]

2. As opposed to a NON-human woman? Anyway, this guy is DEMENTED!

[Buzz Clik]

3. Oh. Well. Those who hate GMOs are really going to hate this.

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]

4. it might be O.K. now but the "teen years" might be tough

BTW do they make cream of mastodon baby food?

[JanMichael]

5. Oh, is that what we are calling them now? I am so used to "Tea Baggers"

but, "Neanderthal" has a certain ring to it.

[RKP5637]

15. +1 +++ +++ n/t

[warrior1]

6. just because you might

have the technology to do something, doesn't mean you should do it.

[MynameisBlarney]

7. Great idea....

What could POSSIBLY go wrong?

That man is insane.

[datasuspect]

8. i've never wished to be a woman before

until now.

[IDemo]

9. Doubtful on this

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]

10. I often wonder what's going on in hidden labs / demented labs, etc., gov. or otherwise. I bet there

is some really really strange sh** going on ... someplace ...

[nolabear]

11. Oh HELL no. HELL no.

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]

12. Never happen.

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. Well, half-Neanderthal has already been done.

http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/human_evolution/2012/10/neanderthal_and_denisovan_genetics_human_ancestors_interbred_with_extinct.html

[petronius]

14. There was a very interesting science fiction story that took a twist on this idea:

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.)

They came from test tubes. They came pale as ghosts with eyes as blue-white as glacier ice. They came first out of Korea.

--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 Harding’s 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 Swede’s 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. we need more republicans?????????????????????????????????????????????????????

damn

[wandy]

17. Mr Church, sir, No. We already have enough republicans.

[frogmarch]

18. Church interview (Spiegel International)

http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/george-church-explains-how-dna-will-be-construction-material-of-the-future-a-877634.html

[Thirties Child]

19. My DNA says I'm 2.8% Neanderthal

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]

22. That's very cool that

you're part Neanderthal!

[temporary311]

23. Just about everyone

who isnt fully sub-saharan african is part Neanderthal.

[jpak]

26. Meh - I'm part Neanderthal AND Denisovan

[Morning Dew]

20. These will be Indigo Neanderthal children, right?

Otherwise, count me out.

[whistler162]

21. Redheads preferred.....

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-489758/Neanderthal-man-redhead-say-scientists.html

[Incitatus]

24. Just offer the subject a reality tv show

The will get thousands of applicants

[LeftInTX]

25. +1

[Beartracks]

27. "everyone will want to have a Neanderthal kid"

Yay, a new celebrity craze!

WTF?

=================

[jmowreader]

28. They already got one response

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]

29. What happened to all the miniature mammoths

That were going to overtake cats and dogs and most popular pet?

TlalocW

[jberryhill]

30. Call Octomom's agent

[NorthCarolina]

31. We already have too many Republicans, don't need to clone any more. nt

[Last Stand]

32. I'd say Michele Bachman

but I assume even Neanderthal's have standards.