I’m a little behind in blogging, but just in case you haven’t seen it, scientists at the University of California-San Diego have managed to take stem cells and grow them into tiny brain-like structures called organoids that actually produce brain waves.  The waves resemble the patterns in pre-term babies.

Many of you have heard this via news programs, but for those who haven’t, Science Daily wrote a nice summary here.  In the summary, one of the researchers says that the organoids almost certainly do not have consciousness, and that the purpose of the project is to explore neural networks and disease. There is an emphasis in the research on ethics, which is likely one of the most important pieces of this type of research.