# Growing miniature human brains in a lab--no big thang **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 16, 2015, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/growing-miniature-human-brains-in-a-lab-no-big-thang/737752 "2015-11-16T23:48:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2015, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/growing-miniature-human-brains-in-a-lab-no-big-thang/737752/1 "2015-11-16T23:48:41Z")
More proof that we really have arrived in the sci-fi future–the fact that a sentence like this could just casually be included at the end of [an NPR story:](http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2015/11/16/456197216/a-genetic-map-hints-at-what-makes-a-brain-human) > [@](#): > > He says he’s confident that scientists will eventually find out what makes the human brain different. But they may have to employ a new technique, he says, which uses stem cells to grow miniature human brains in the lab. :eek: Gee, what could possibly go wrong there? :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Claverhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/13edae/32.png) [@Claverhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claverhouse)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2015, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/growing-miniature-human-brains-in-a-lab-no-big-thang/737752/2 "2015-11-17T01:00:34Z")
I’m seeing a Lionel Barrymore vehicle in the making. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2015, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/growing-miniature-human-brains-in-a-lab-no-big-thang/737752/3 "2015-11-17T02:27:52Z")
I say we implant them in rats and teach them to play Frisbee. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2015, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/growing-miniature-human-brains-in-a-lab-no-big-thang/737752/4 "2015-11-17T12:45:39Z")
Maybe they can get Doctor Pretorius to make more of his miniature homunculi. Or he can sew together tiny bodies out of corpsesm inplant the brains, and sell them as “Personal Frankensteins”. ---
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2015, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/growing-miniature-human-brains-in-a-lab-no-big-thang/737752/5 "2015-11-17T13:03:37Z")
Microsoft should attach a USB port to them and sell as a Windows 10 Cortana upgrade. …or, stick one in your pocket so you can be Mr. Smarty Pants. ---
**Author:** ![not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/not_what_you_d_expect/32/3246_2.png) [@not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/not_what_you_d_expect)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2015, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/growing-miniature-human-brains-in-a-lab-no-big-thang/737752/6 "2015-11-17T13:40:52Z")
Earrings! Maybe with hats, for color coordination of course. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2015, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/growing-miniature-human-brains-in-a-lab-no-big-thang/737752/7 "2015-11-17T13:47:06Z")
I want them to swap out my brain for a mini-version and use all the extra space for a kick-ass home entertainment center. Oh, and some laser eyes. ---
**Author:** ![MacTech](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MacTech](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacTech)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2015, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/growing-miniature-human-brains-in-a-lab-no-big-thang/737752/8 "2015-11-17T14:38:01Z")
Are you pondering what I’m pondering? ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2015, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/growing-miniature-human-brains-in-a-lab-no-big-thang/737752/9 "2015-11-17T14:39:34Z")
Meh. Given all the puny human brains that already occur in nature, this isn’t such a big deal. ---
**Author:** ![Edward\_The\_Head](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ce73a5/32.png) [@Edward\_The\_Head](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Edward_The_Head)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2015, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/growing-miniature-human-brains-in-a-lab-no-big-thang/737752/10 "2015-11-17T14:58:41Z")
> [@MacTech](#): > > Are you pondering what I’m pondering? I think so MacTech, but where are we going to get pink lederhosen at this time of night? ---
**Author:** ![G0sp3l](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c68b51/32.png) [@G0sp3l](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/G0sp3l)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2015, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/growing-miniature-human-brains-in-a-lab-no-big-thang/737752/11 "2015-11-17T18:46:05Z")
As long as we make sure they’re vulnerable to a missing Delta brain wave, we should be fine. ---
**Author:** ![JR\_Brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d6d6ee/32.png) [@JR\_Brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JR_Brown)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2015, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/growing-miniature-human-brains-in-a-lab-no-big-thang/737752/12 "2015-11-17T19:58:06Z")
The thread so far is joke answers, but if you’re interested in a real answer: The guy is referring to so-called “[cerebral organoids](http://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/flash/2013/cerebral-organoids-a-tool-to-study-human-brain-development/)”, which are little balls of tissue (a few millimeters across) which to a certain (very limited) degree resemble the organization and cell types found in the fetal brain. They can be produced by both mouse and human cell lines, and presumably other species, although I don’t think anyone has tried yet. They’re a hot topic in brain research at the moment, because it is very hard to study the brain of a living human fetus, for reasons I assume will be obvious, and human cerebral organoids could potentially be the next-best-thing. Calling them “miniature brains”, however, is more of a metaphor than a reality. Their architecture is only loosely organized, they have a restricted spectrum of cell types, the neurons in the organoids remain relatively immature, and it’s not clear at this point what proportion, if any, of the neurons are actually wired together, or whether their connections are mature enough to make them capable of sending electrical signals to each other. Basically, they resemble a brain [about as much as a teratoma resembles a fetus](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1283/do-some-tumors-contain-the-beginnings-of-a-baby). So the technique is an incremental improvement over existing tissue culture models of brain development, but it’s not going to result in consciousness in a dish.