A Baby Neanderthal: Outlandish But Worth Discussing
As I wrote on Friday, in an interview with Germany’s Der Spiegel, Harvard geneticist George Church discussed the possibility of one day cloning a Neanderthal. In a story in today’s Boston Herald, Church has clarified that he does not think it should be done.
According to the Herald: “I’m certainly not advocating it,” Church said. “I’m saying, if it is technically possible someday, we need to start talking about it today.”
I wholeheartedly agree. The idea of a surrogate mother for a Neanderthal baby is an interesting thought experiment. If we have the technology in hand (or close to hand), it seems better to have open discussion about what could be before we move to what should be.
Keep Reading
Most Popular
Here’s how a Twitter engineer says it will break in the coming weeks
One insider says the company’s current staffing isn’t able to sustain the platform.
Technology that lets us “speak” to our dead relatives has arrived. Are we ready?
Digital clones of the people we love could forever change how we grieve.
How to befriend a crow
I watched a bunch of crows on TikTok and now I'm trying to connect with some local birds.
Starlink signals can be reverse-engineered to work like GPS—whether SpaceX likes it or not
Elon said no thanks to using his mega-constellation for navigation. Researchers went ahead anyway.
Stay connected
Get the latest updates from
MIT Technology Review
Discover special offers, top stories, upcoming events, and more.