We’re definitely entering a bold new era in human history. A report out yesterday said that by the year 2045 AI robots will now be our equals, and now this story out of Rockefeller University where scientists have successfully combined artificial human and chicken cells in an embryo. The experiment was done by a team of stem cell researchers who are trying to better understand developing life.

Pixabay Here’s more from the Daily Express: Until now, scientists have been unable to answer how certain cells in a developing embryo decide to become muscles or limbs, while others become bones and nerves. But now researchers led by Dr Ali Brivanlou, from Rockefeller University in New York, have achieved the unimaginable in a shock experiment. By grafting petri dish-grown human cells onto the embryo of a chicken the scientists were for the first time ever able to observe how cells organise themselves. The study was published this week in the science journal Nature where the scientists unveiled the inner machinations of so-called ‘organizer cells’.

Pixabay Organizer cells are responsible for the formation of cells and dictate how the human body takes its form. For the first time ever, scientists were able to witness this process taking place. Though the experiment seems to raise a whole bunch of ethical issues, it was actually conducted this way to avoid another one. Countries such as the US have banned the use of human embryos more than 14 days old. Unfortunately, that’s the time when organizer cells start developing, so for scientists to witness these cells in action, they had to come up with a work around. More from the Daily Express: In the new study, the researchers bypassed the rule by growing embryo-like structures derived from human embryonic cells.

_ _

Pixabay The cells were then grafted onto 12-hour-old chicken embryos which are roughly the equivalent of a 14 day human. Astonishingly, the researchers noted as the chicken embryo grew, organiser cells dictated the formation of a second chicken nervous system. Dr Martin Blum, a developmental biologist at the University of Hohenheim in Germany, said the “beautiful” finding could put an end to the use of actual human embryos in laboratories. The expert said: “It’s a real advance – it’s beautiful this can be shown without the need of using embryos. The full study of this experiment was printed in the science journal Nature So, what do you think, is this a good thing or a bad thing? Does it raise worse ethical problems than it solves?