Two papers published over the weekend in Nature reveal that human brain size can be manipulated genetically by tampering with just one gene, called WDR62. Mutations to this gene cause microencephaly (MCPH), a condition where humans (and other animals) are born with small brains. In humans, the condition can cause severe disabilities. But, researchers speculate, the gene is also involved in creating humans’ extra-large brains as well.
In one paper, written by Adeline Nicholas, et. al., the researchers say that this gene controls a cell-division mechanism that is “critical both in causing MCPH when perturbed and, when modulated, generating the evolutionarily enlarged human brain.”
Is this the gene that we’ll go to if we want to create a generation of super-intelligent, giant-brained posthumans?
Read the full scientific paper via Nature
