Stanford Medicine researchers discovered that the human brain is actually built from two distinct developmental lineages: a hindbrain system controlling breathing and heartbeat, and a forebrain/midbrain system responsible for higher cognition. The team found these two regions arise from separate progenitor pathways rather than one branching from the other, and used this insight to finally grow functional hindbrain motor neurons from human stem cells in the lab. They also traced this dual-origin pattern back over 550 million years, finding it in chickens, zebrafish, and acorn worms.
science.slashdot.org
· 2026-09-20
Researchers led by Kyle Loh at Stanford Medicine discovered that the forebrain and hindbrain arise from distinct progenitor cells rather than a single common origin, contradicting decades of neuroscience theory. The forebrain governs higher cognition like language and abstract thought, while the hindbrain controls vital functions such as heartbeat and breathing. The study, published in Nature Neuroscience, was co-led by graduate students Carolyn Dundes and Rayyan Jokhai.
med.stanford.edu
· 2026-09-19
A software engineering blogger describes a growing trend where workers let LLMs perform tasks like coding or summarizing without verifying the output, simply relaying results back and forth—dubbed being a 'meat proxy.' The author argues that while this approach has improved since early 2025, its logical endpoint is self-defeating: if an LLM can eventually produce good software unsupervised, employers will simply automate the loop and remove the human entirely.
danluu.com
· 2026-09-18
Researchers led by Kyle Loh at Stanford University found that in mouse and human embryos, the front and back regions of the brain arise from distinct progenitor cells rather than a shared developmental origin. Cells expressing the OTX2 gene generate the forebrain and midbrain, while GBX2-expressing cells produce the hindbrain, a pattern confirmed in both mouse embryos and human cells grown in dishes.
newscientist.com
· 2026-09-18
A Reddit user known as ActualAerie1011 says they used Google's simulated fruit fly connectome to play the card game Balatro, reportedly achieving a roughly 20% win rate on the easiest difficulty with the default deck. The approach reportedly paired a custom seed-finding algorithm with reinforcement-style feedback, rewarding the model for good outcomes and penalizing poor ones. No code or technical documentation has been shared publicly, leading some commenters to question the claim's validity.
androidauthority.com
· 2026-09-18
Stanford researchers who previously showed human brain organoids could survive and function inside baby mice have now genetically engineered mice so their own brains don't fully develop, allowing human tissue to fill the gap more extensively. The approach aims to create better models for studying brain injury and development, while forcing the team to set explicit ethical limits on how far the chimeric brain research should go.
technologyreview.com
· 2026-09-17
Researchers created chimeric mouse brains containing clusters of human brain cells, allowing human neurons to develop and integrate within a living rodent brain. The team says this hybrid model lets them observe human brain cell behavior in a functioning biological system rather than relying solely on animal models or lab dishes.
bbc.com
· 2026-09-17
A Stanford research team removed a large section of a mouse's brain and replaced it with tissue grown from human stem cells known as brain organoids. The goal was to give these lab-grown clusters of neurons a living, connected environment closer to an actual brain than a petri dish can offer.
arstechnica.com
· 2026-09-16
Science Corporation CEO Max Hodak will speak at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026's Beyond Screens session about his company's biohybrid brain-computer interface, for which it has recruited a leading neurobiologist to run the first U.S. human trials. Hodak, a Neuralink co-founder, argues that keyboards and screens will eventually give way to interfaces built directly around brain activity.
techcrunch.com
· 2026-09-16
Max Hodak, CEO of Science Corporation and Neuralink co-founder, will speak at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 in San Francisco about his company's biohybrid brain-computer interface, which has recruited a leading neurobiologist to run its first U.S. human trials. In his Disrupt Stage session, Hodak will argue that computing is moving beyond screens toward interfaces built directly on brain-computer interaction.
techcrunch.com
· 2026-09-16
Neurotech startup Paradromics reported that a 68-year-old woman with severe speech loss used its Connexus brain-computer interface to hold real-time conversations, including phone calls with her grandchildren. Surgeons implanted the 400-plus-electrode device at University of Michigan Health in June as the first case in a clinical trial, with the system wirelessly converting brain activity into a computer-generated voice.
entrepreneur.com
· 2026-09-16
A Stanford team led by Sergiu Pașca genetically engineered mice to lack most of their cortex and hippocampus, then implanted human brain organoid cells into the resulting gap. The human cells expanded to fill much of that space within weeks to months, and mice with the human tissue performed better on memory maze tests than mice without it.
technologyreview.com
· 2026-09-16
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