In an institute in Germany, scientists are growing “Neanderthalised” human brain cells in a dish. These cells make synapses and sparks, just as they would have done in a living Neanderthal when she (they are female cells) grazed or lactated or looked out at the evening from the mouth of a cave. That’s the opening spin of a gambit from a book co-authored by one of the institute’s directors, Johannes Krause, and information that sets it apart from the multitude of popular science books that attempt to predict the future of our human evolutionary foundation. the past
A mere 90% of genetic differences distinguish modern humans; A wise manfrom * Neanderthals, Neanderthal man. Those little things, given that there are almost 20,000 genes that make up a person in a way, and not all of them affect the brain. However, those 90 differences could explain why the Neanderthals died out some 40,000 years ago, when we went to dominate the planet. They could hold the key to how we, the more adaptable human species, can adapt again before we destroy the ecosystems we rely on and we’re right along with them.
It is certainly the reason behind the German experiment. To really understand the effects of the differences, scientists would need to build complete organs, ideally of the entire Neanderthal, and then compare them with modern humans in appropriate measurements. While most people agree, they agree that this is morally wrong rudimentsthe so-called organoids of the brain (a science correspondent describes them as “lenses” and “incapable of thoughts or emotions”. This building already presents a technical challenge and it will be a few years before it fulfills its role.
Most of the rest of the book will be devoted to updating the history of human evolution, which is something of a motivational target at the moment, thanks to the twenty-year-old technology that has made it possible to extract and read DNA. ancient bones The story gets more complicated with almost all the narratives, but one message comes through loud and clear: most of the human family was dead by the end of human evolution. The only one who survived to this day, almost did not make us. He gave something wise but what was it? Culture? Ability to build great social networks? A utopian dream and a kamikaze approach to understanding? Or perhaps?
Whatever made us aggressive expansionists, nowhere more so than in Austronesia were our expansionist tendencies. Beginning in Taiwan about 5,000 years ago, our ancestors were brought down from a succession of islands with animals, seeds and children on board, but there was no guarantee that they could see the next piece of land within miles of the ocean. The time has come when modern humans have occupied every last bit of land, and every last habitable remnant of the earth. Now we eagerly desire the moon and Mars.
The biological desire to perpetuate genes is not human; we share it with every organism. Curiosity is not only a human concept; The apes wandered out of Africa long before us. Nor were we always rapacious. The authors have long held that Easter Island, Rapa Nui was stripped of its original inhabitants by the descendants of these inhabitants who thus preserved their destruction. But he asked for a new interpretation of the researchwhere people lived before the arrival of Europeans in the 19th century.
Surviving all the other hominins, though, and explaining. Krause and Trappe adapt the argument of rethinking the Rapa Nui, which they claim was only in the 20th century. A wise man became A man of the earth – with exponential growth in the human population, technological innovation, global mean temperature and loss of biodiversity has transformed us into an existential threat to ourselves. That change happened so quickly that it must have been cultural rather than biological evolution, but the ability to adapt through culture ultimately lies in the genes.
The authors say that the Neanderthals made art, which, if they could hint at the truth, was less capable of abstract thought than we are. Not everyone agrees with thatbut most of all he would grant that the Neanderthals differed from us knowingly and knowingly. The question is: are those differences under pressure to curb greedy impulses before it’s too late? Can we move culture to destroy biology?
In case anyone needs reminding, that is 8 billion thousand already born to order the good of the yet to be born. Sadly, we have sinned so much, but perhaps we still have it in us. Or maybe it’s a real place for myths to make us think something other than the end of the dead is going to happen. Neanderthals roamed the planet for nearly 400,000 years; We were here for 300,000. When all is said and done, who will be judged the winner?
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