Student invention grows hundreds of ‘mini-brains’ at once • Hacker News Board

Re: Student invention grows hundreds of ‘mini-brains’ at once

#21

Post by fapjacks » Mon, May 02, 2016, 8:00 PM UTC

patall wrote: post #19

koluft wrote: post #7

>“My thought was, okay, let’s just wait. If he is serious, he’s going to ask me again,” says Song, professor of neurology This is a horribly destructive attitude, that promotes salesmanship over technical talent.

I totally agree (and at the same time assume that just the story he tell now, he probably just ignored it because he gets hundreds of emails a day. When he got the third he may have thought: I should say something before he spams me the whole day). Its a typical strategy that works as long as not everyone is doing it.

And they're certainly going to be doing it now!

Re: Student invention grows hundreds of ‘mini-brains’ at once

#22

Post by biot » Mon, May 02, 2016, 8:24 PM UTC

FroshKiller wrote: post #4

moron4hire wrote: post #3

I don't mean to belittle what the kid has done. It's an actually amazing accomplishment, for anyone of any age. But it calls to question a problem. Is there a major issue with cross-disciplinary collaboration within the medical and academic spaces? I would think a mechanical or electrical engineer would consider this to be a fairly trivial application of the tech, yet the medical community seems to be hailing it as a…

It may be, but I'm more concerned with the poor treatment the kid got initially, getting ignored like that. Even if you didn't think he was serious, would it have killed you to refer him to what you thought would have been a more appropriate channel rather than ignoring him?

That's like saying every software engineer in the Bay Area should respond helpfully to every email from recruiters, directing them to more appropriate candidates rather than ignoring them.

Re: Student invention grows hundreds of ‘mini-brains’ at once

#23

Post by protomyth » Mon, May 02, 2016, 8:40 PM UTC

abc_lisper wrote: post #14

Is this ethical. I know there are other people who are growing mini(should call them micro, by their size) brains, but considering the fights against abortion in US, I wonder if law makers approve of this.

> but considering the fights against abortion in US, I wonder if law makers approve of this.

Probably some law maker since nothing is really immune from them on any subject, but I don't think the anti-arbortion crowd is really going to care.

Taking the comments from an article link[1]

The advent of human induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, which allow researchers to ultimately transform any cell into a neuron, has opened a new avenue for the study of complex neuropsychiatric disorders, including autism.

In principle, iPS cells can be derived from cells anywhere in the body, and maintain the individual’s unique genetic background. This is important, as complex diseases are caused by mutations in multiple genes, which would be reflected in the iPS model.

Since, its not embryonic stem cells, it should go over fine and has nothing really to do with the pro-life agenda. I tend to start with the example of skin grafting when describing this type of thing to give the context of starting with existing non-embryonic cells and working your way to treatments. I guess there might be those opposed to using your own cells to research or fix you, but I think that's a very, very small sliver of the population.

1) https://spectrumnews.org/opinion/viewpoint/promise-and-pitfa...

Re: Student invention grows hundreds of ‘mini-brains’ at once

#24

Post by mbrundle » Mon, May 02, 2016, 8:57 PM UTC

Earlier this year, someone from Reddit asked me for advice on classifying some tricky medical image data (CT/MRI/SPECT of healthy vs Parkinson's patients), an area somewhat related to my PhD research. The guy was very knowledgable and had already made a lot of progress. I asked him which lab he was doing his thesis in. He replied to say he was a high school student.

I'm seriously impressed with what these students are capable of these days.

Re: Student invention grows hundreds of ‘mini-brains’ at once

#25

Post by ldehaan » Mon, May 02, 2016, 9:17 PM UTC

giarc wrote: post #16

>“They [high school students] know more than we do about programming and 3D printing, all that cool stuff,” he says. “They can make a design in a very different way than how we were trained.” I think this is an important statement. Kids tinkering in their basement have knowledge to do great work, but are often overlooked because of their age or education.

agreed, I had a rough time of it, I started working in computing at 13 and only got the job because my mom hired me to automate data entry at the local college.

I was actually pretty lucky to be able to work with the places that I have, but it was a lot of applying everywhere and hoping they didn't ask how old I was on the phone interview.

I actually had to grow a beard before people stopped asking me how old I was and focused on asking me technical questions :D

it does seem to be taking a turn, I have seen a lot of kids hanging out at the local tinker mill working on cool projects and talking about starting their own companies. which seems like a much more accessible thing than it was when I was a kid.