but since you know about this sort of thing.. what on earth is the point of having a few human braincells in a mouse's brain other than being able to say to other scientists "ZOMG! Lookie what I did!"? Is it even going to do something to the mouse?
Oooh, yeah! I just read an article on this, and it's absolutely fascinating. Basically, they injected human embryonic stem cells into the brains of a few mouse fetuses. The embryonic stem cells matured right along with the other cells, and are now working parts of the mouse's brain.
And it won't result in super-intelligent mice, or anything like that. Embryonic stem cells are basically "blanks": they can eventually become any type of cell. The human brain cells have actually developed the characteristics of mouse brain cells.
With mice like this, they can test cures for brain disorders, like Parkinson's, without actually putting any people at risk.
While I'm no scientist, I don't think it would really do anything to the mouse. The brain cells, while human-based, work like the rest of the mouse's brain.
And if those idiots at Fox News bothered to do any research whatsoever, they'd find out it was NOT the result of genetic "splicing": the mouse's DNA was not tampered with at all.
I think that even if the mouse reproduced (which it almost certainly won't be allowed to do), its offspring would be normal mice with no human parts.
Here's the article I read:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/12/1214_051214_stem_cell_2.html
Ooops. Sorry for derailing the thread. Pardon! *slinks back into evil media lair*