Making Lab Mice Talk

File this under “freaky science experiments.”

Molecular biologists in Leipzig recently spliced human language genes into lab mice… and they started talking.

Well, maybe they weren’t speaking in any language we humans could understand… but it did alter the brain structure of the mice. Their “language” centers grew more complex. And the way they communicated with other mice – i.e., their squeaking – was different.

The purpose of creating the mutant mice? To discover how this particular gene may have evolved in early humans to give our species the ability to speak.

(Source: Discover Magazine)

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