For the record, a Harvard scientist is NOT looking for an "adventurous woman" to give birth to a cloned Neanderthal. Ladies, you can stop filling out those application forms. Apparently, geneticist George Church and the German magazine Der Spiegel had a bit of a translation problem.

  • proginoskes

    I read a good book about this years ago. http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/614778.Ember_from_the_Sun

  • http://2012diaries.blogspot.com/ tristan eldritch

    Well, that’s a relief.  It looked like they were trying to mix the DNA of Encino Man and Rosemary’s Mary there for a moment.

    • cfuse

      We already have the Kardashians.

  • Henry Pootel

    Maybe they mistook his Craigslist “Men Seeking Women” ad 

    • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_OAUXAA362EXWLYVMPJOKLFB5JQ Incipient Madness

      Actually there are tons of ads on Craigslist for gestational surrogates. Plenty for egg donors too. Jewish egg donors can make about 50% more than other egg donors because of Jewish laws about ethnic identity. You’d think having a Jewish gestational mother would be enough. I think the work of carrying a pregnancy gives the gestational mother as much a claim on the baby as the genetic mother has. But I suppose this is sexism at work. As Katha Pollitt said, “The important thing abuot genes is that men have them.” It would seem that gestation is mere “women’s work” and thus it doesn’t count for much.

  • http://imcravingpresidency.tumblr.com/ SedanChair

    Sure guys, “translation error.” It’s all fun and games until you end up getting mind controlled by a Neanderthal with his giant brain. 

    Our ancestors didn’t fight a war against the Neanderthals for egghead scientists to let them in through the back door! NOT IN MY NAME

    • kroeghe

       Hm, I think you’ve either read too much or too little of Peter Watts. I can’t decide. ;)

      • Brent Kirkham

        If you have to ask, it’s probably too much.

  • Sparrow

    For some reason, this was the book that came to mind: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/264941.Frameshift

  • Luther Blissett

    Just for the record, here’s the “original” source (after gtranslate): seems the germans really messed this up. What a junk of “popular science reporting”. Dreadful.

    /edit: there’s a feedback link on that page. While the field titles are not translated, you may still have a go and spread this link. Would be legit if they got some mild bashing about this: they *really* published this under science/medicine! LeFuq, it reads like yellow press.