If the scarecrow had turned to modern day scientists rather than the Wizard of Oz he would have gotten something significantly more useful than a piece of paper. I'm referring to the ongoing research into the development of a human brain, better known in scientific circles as cerebral organoids.
Jurgen Knobloch of the Austrian Academy of Science and a team of Austrian and British scientists have grown stem cell derived three-dimensional models of embryonic human brains. These in vitro models develop various but interdependent brain regions. "Stem cells can be coaxed into balls of neural cells that self organize into distinctive layers," according to Arnold Kriegstein. Madeline A. Lancaster and her team have grown these cerebral organoids in a spinning chamber with sufficient nutrients to allow them to develop. Because there is no neural network these organoids are short lived, 20 to 30 days. They begin to die from the interior outward due to the lack of a blood supply.
The need for such experimentation has to do with the complexity of determining how the human brain develops. The use of mice for such research has limited value and the need to determine how such disorders as microcephaly and schizophrenia develop make this a valuable scientific study. With microcephaly the brain doesn't develop enough neurons and therefore is small. A smaller brain equates to less connectivity. And there is a good discussion on a study into how different substances affect these organoids to determine how they react in schizophrenics here.
Of course there are ethical issues as to what constitutes a living being and when does the tiny mass of cells in the petrie dish constitute life. I'll leave that for another day. For the moment, I'm thinking Mary Shelley and Frankenstein.
Happy writing.
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