Rise of the Frankenmice! Scientists create mice with half-human BRAINS

By SHIVALI BEST, SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY EDITOR

The idea of a mouse with a half-human brain might sound like something created in Dr Frankenstein's lab. 

But it has become a reality in California, where scientists from Stanford University have transplanted lab-grown human brain tissue into bioengineered mice.

The human tissue replicates key features of brain development – including the formation of functional neural networks.

This is significant because living human brain tissue is essentially inaccessible for research purposes for ethical reasons.

According to the researchers, the breakthrough could speed up research into the causes and mechanisms of devastating disorders such as profound autism, epilepsy, cerebral palsy and schizophrenia.

'This gives us a way to study human neural tissue across several levels, from genes and individual cell types to circuits and functional consequences in an animal,' said senior author Professor Sergiu Pasca.

'We can begin to ask how disease-associated human genetic changes alter neural development and circuitry and whether potential treatments can prevent or correct those changes.'

A map of estimated nerve-fibre pathways in the brain of an experimental 'xenocortical' mouse that was bioengineered with lab-grown human brain tissue 

The human tissue replicates key features of brain development – including the formation of functional neural networks

In the study, the team used stem cells to create mini, 3D organoids that can reproduce features of the human cerebral cortex. 

This is the part of the brain that controls cognition, language, attention and decision–making.  

Next, the team used a genetic strategy in mice to block the development of most of the cells that normally give rise to the cerebral cortex. 

Professor Pasca explained: 'The space normally occupied by the mouse cortex allowed us to transplant human cortical organoids shortly after birth and gave the human tissue room to grow extensively.

'In these mice, the human grafts generated a broad diversity of cortical cell types and established functional connections throughout the mouse nervous system.'

The researchers call the resulting mice 'xenocortical', rather than 'humanised'.  

'These animals retain a mouse nervous system, but they contain a larger volume of human cortical tissue that develops, integrates and forms connections within it,' Professor Pasca said.

'Cortical organoids give us an experimental window into human brain development and disease. 

'They are not miniature brains and do not reproduce the full complexity of the human brain, but they allow us to study human neural cell types and developmental processes that would otherwise be extremely difficult to access.'

A cross-section MRI scan through a xenocortical mouse brain showing a map of estimated nerve-fibre pathways and directions 

In the future, the mice could help scientists to investigate disorders such as autism, epilepsy and schizophrenia. 

However, as a first application, the researchers used the mice to understand what happens during oxygen deprivation – something that can have major neurological consequences when it occurs during pregnancy or birth. 

The results revealed that the bioengineered mice looked like ordinary laboratory mice as they moved around and explored their environment. 

However, they had deficits in fine motor coordination and differences in memory abilities. 

Professor Pasca said: 'In the xenocortical mice, a period of low oxygen caused substantial injury to human cortical cells and was accompanied by abnormalities in gait and motor coordination.'

The researchers said the experiments adhered to ethical guidelines focused on two issues in particular.

'The first is animal welfare: the scientific question has to justify the use of animals, suffering must be minimized and experiments should only be performed when the information cannot adequately be obtained with alternative approaches,' Professor Pasca said.

'The second is whether introducing increasingly complex human neural tissue into an animal nervous system could lead to unexpected, emergent or novel properties that would require additional ethical consideration.'

The expert added: 'We also have to weigh the cost of not doing this work,' noting that neurological and psychiatric disorders affect nearly one in five people even as scientific understanding remains limited and effective treatments remain lacking for many of these conditions.

Scientists Can Control Mice Brains Wirelessly

Scientists Can Control Mice Brains Wirelessly

{ https://www.dailymail.com/sciencetech/index.html }

Democratic allies, it seems, face a shared challenge. For too long, elected officials in our respective nations have been denied adequate information about the phenomena operating in our common security environment. And in the U.S., whenever we are informed, it’s only through the preferred methods and timing of unelected bureaucrats deeply entrenched in our national security apparatus. In Japan, by contrast, the Ministry of Defense has stated that information may be made public when something arises that it determines should be explained.

But this raises a fundamental question: should the government alone decide what should be explained to the public?

If a grave national security threat truly exists, then elected representatives have been left with little choice but to entrust the security of their nations to the very institutions that have obscured the truth from us and even each other.

It is therefore incumbent upon us—Representatives solely accountable to the citizens of our respective nations—to work together and to seek the truth wherever we may find it; both for the good of our people and to defend against whatever threats we face from strategic competitors.

As mentioned above, among the files released by the U.S. DOW were highly significant firsthand reports from high-ranking officials in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. The documents detail a search operation at a classified missile testing site in the Western United States, explicitly for aerial phenomena:

En route, ground teams reported spotting a UAP on FLIR [Forward Looking Infrared], describing it as “super-hot,” low to the ground, and moving east then south at high speed. The object then split into two and changed direction. Upon arrival, we scanned the area using NVG [Night Vision Goggles], FLIR, and the naked eye. The ground team suddenly radioed that the object had risen from the ground, approached within ten feet of the helicopter, dropped below us, and then sped away.

The documents were accompanied by what the DOW labeled as “related photos.”

Accounts such as these are hardly “proof” of anything, but for elected officials, they do cement the reality of our national security concerns. Missing from this account—or any account we have been allowed to access—is an answer to a fundamental question: What do the various U.S. government agencies believe these objects are? Are they merely civilian drones? Do they represent technology belonging to a foreign actor? And if someone within the government does know, who decides that elected officials shouldn’t?

Members of Japan’s UAP Parliamentary League, led by former Japanese Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada, share similar concerns.

DOW data, released through the Pentagon’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) in August of 2023, identified specific regions of Japan, particularly in the western and southern parts of the country, as being among the world’s notable hotspots for UAP reports.

One such instance occurred as recently as July of last year. Security guards at the Genkai Nuclear Power Station in Saga Prefecture observed three luminous objects in the sky above the facility. The lights remained visible for nearly two hours; long enough for local police to arrive and observe them. The police stated that what they themselves observed was an airplane, leaving a discrepancy between the two accounts. The incident was also recorded by Kyushu Electric Power’s security cameras, but the footage has not been made available even to members of the National Diet. Police have likewise declined to disclose related information on the grounds that the matter remains under investigation. As a result, elected lawmakers still lack access to the information necessary to independently assess the incident, and to this day, members of Japan’s National Diet have no answers.

Like their American counterparts, Japanese lawmakers have been left without the tools or information for proper oversight despite reports of UAP operating near critical infrastructure within restricted airspace.

It is no longer acceptable for elected representatives to be agnostic on this issue. Events such as these, along with countless videos now made publicly available, are more than mere optical illusions and cannot be dismissed on account of prosaic explanations like parallax effect. For many members of Congress and members of Japan’s UAP Parliamentary League, the evidence presented before us indicates an unknown technology.

Our understanding of what is technologically feasible in propulsion, the manipulation of physical matter, and even space-time itself is being challenged. From what we know, our current defense capabilities appear insufficient. Furthermore, the origin of these phenomena remains unknown—not only to the U.S. and Japan, but seemingly to other nations as well. China, for instance, recently established its own military body dedicated to investigating UAP, even supplementing human resources with artificial intelligence dedicated to tracking what the People’s Liberation Army refers to as “Unidentified Air Conditions.”

We are, by all indications, in a global arms race for technological supremacy, one that is rapidly rendering today’s weapons obsolete through advances in quantum technology, artificial intelligence, and drone warfare. UAP and whatever technology allows them to operate with apparent impunity over sensitive military and nuclear installations could redefine the competition.

See Also

Inspector General Launching Evaluation into The Pentagon’s Actions With UFOs

If harnessed by democratic allies, breakthroughs could bolster deterrence and stability in the South China Sea. Conversely, failure to establish a coordinated effort among democratic allies could give China an unforeseen technological advantage over a future invasion of Taiwan, making an already difficult fight impossible.

U.S. global leadership, along with the territorial integrity of the Pacific are at stake. For members of Japan’s National Diet, UAP investigations are of great national importance—an issue that demands cross-party attention.

As for their American counterparts, it’s clear representatives can’t reach the truth through traditional pathways that amount to asking the Central Intelligence Agency ‘nicely.’ It stands to reason that close alliances with democratic allies like Japan may be the most viable pathway for disclosure.

Indeed, if our tools are limited in scope, perhaps new revelations made by democratic allies provide a unique leverage point. After all, it was the Trump administration’s disclosure under the PURSUE program that significantly increased pressure on Japan’s Defense Ministry to acknowledge its own previously undisclosed UAP-related activities.

This is why we, as elected representatives of our nations, have engaged the Emerging Technologies Interparliamentary Caucus (ETIC) as a platform for international dialogue regarding emerging technologies and the security threats presented by UAP. Comprised of representatives from across the globe, the ETIC presents a rare opportunity to ensure elected representatives are equipped to assess potential threats, safeguard our nations, and prepare for the realities of emerging technologies in the 21st century.

Whether the phenomena we are encountering originate from an adversary or something else entirely, democratic nations cannot afford to be complacent.

The people of our nations deserve answers, and we intend to find them.

• Rep. Eric Burlison (R-MO-07) is the Chairman of the Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Energy Policy, and Regulatory Affairs. 
• Yasukazu Hamada is a Member of the House of Representatives, Japan, Former Minister of Defense, and Chairman of the UAP Parliamentary League.  

{ https://thedebrief.org/category/defense/ }

The PURSUE initiative, initiated earlier this year by the Trump administration, is not a UAP investigative office like the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), but rather an effort to identify, review, declassify, and publicly release UAP-related records held by U.S. federal agencies.

According to the Department of War, the waiver supports President Donald Trump’s mandate for greater transparency surrounding UAP by creating a protected channel for military and government personnel to provide UAP-related National Defense Information (NDI) to designated PURSUE representatives. The directive applies to current and former Department of War service members, veterans, civilian employees, and contractors who currently have or previously had access to UAP-related NDI.

For covered disclosures made to designated PURSUE representatives, the waiver provides targeted relief from certain civil and administrative enforcement provisions contained in Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) and Special Access Program Indoctrination Agreements (SAPIAs). The waiver applies specifically to authorized communications with PURSUE representatives.

Michael Gold, President of Civil and International Space Business Development at Redwire and a former NASA official who supported the efforts of AARO’s predecessor office, the UAP Task Force, and NASA’s UAP Independent Study Team, told The Debrief the move was “unprecedented.”

“To the best of my knowledge, this action by the Department of War is nearly, if not entirely, unprecedented,” Gold said. “I have never seen anything like this before on any topic, and it demonstrates the seriousness with which the Department of War and the Trump administration are treating UAP transparency.”

“This administration’s handling of UAP transparency has been extraordinary and should be applauded by all of those who care about the issue and good government generally,” Gold added.

Why does this matter for past whistleblowers? 

The new PURSUE order comes after several UAP whistleblowers have come forward with allegations that the government possesses more information about UAP than has been publicly disclosed. Individuals who have claimed knowledge of UAP-related programs have also cited legal and professional risks as barriers to publicly discussing what they say they know. Those concerns have included potential violations of nondisclosure agreements, loss of security clearances, and administrative or legal consequences for revealing protected information.

The Department of War says the new waiver is designed to address some of those barriers. Importantly, however, the waiver does not mean that previously classified UAP information has been declassified or cleared for public release. Instead, it creates an authorized pathway for individuals with relevant information to provide it to PURSUE for review.

The Department of War says information submitted through PURSUE will undergo security review and, where appropriate, potential declassification before it can be publicly released.

“Disclosures of any kind made to PURSUE would need to be reviewed and classified information redacted before such information could be released publicly,” Gold told The Debrief. “The administration, through the National Archives and other executive branch agencies and departments, has already gone through this process to release information in the various tranches, and the same could be done for information disclosed via this waiver,” Gold said.

Gold said he was “optimistic that some very significant information could be publicly released through this process,” says Gold. 

Gold also argued that members of Congress involved in UAP oversight should eventually be given access to information provided under the waiver.

“In addition to select representatives of PURSUE, I think it would be very beneficial if Members of the House UAP caucus and other select Representatives and Senators would be granted access to whatever information is provided under the waiver.  For example, Representatives Burlison, Luna, Burchett, and others have been fearless champions for UAP transparency, and including them in this process would substantially bolster the credibility and efficacy of the overall effort.”

The change could provide former government personnel with an authorized route to disclose UAP-related information to PURSUE without triggering certain civil or administrative enforcement provisions that might otherwise apply under NDAs or Special Access Program agreements.

However, the waiver is specifically directed at authorized disclosures to PURSUE representatives. It does not provide blanket authorization for individuals to publicly reveal protected or classified information.

The potential implications for the commercial and private sectors also remain unclear. Gold, however, believes greater UAP transparency could have consequences for aerospace and aviation.

“UAP transparency could have tremendous beneficial impacts on the aerospace sector,” Gold said in an email to The Debrief.

“Understanding what the phenomenon is could lead to new scientific discoveries and technologies,” he said, adding that a better understanding of UAP “will benefit the safety of air traffic and space operations.”

Fundamentally, Gold says that any new information whistleblowers may now be willing to provide could also help reduce stigmas surrounding the topic that have impeded U.S. progress in the past, and which may even have aided foreign adversaries.

“By diluting the stigma surrounding UAP, it will close a loophole that I suspect is being used by adversary nations to hide advanced drone activity around critical American national security and civil infrastructure and facilities.”

Whether this new pathway produces substantive new information and opens the door for legitimate whistleblowers remains to be seen. As with previous UAP disclosure efforts, distinguishing well-supported testimony and documentation from misinformation, disinformation, or unsubstantiated claims will remain an important part of that process.

If the waiver results in significant new information reaching the public, it will depend on what is submitted to PURSUE, how that information is evaluated, and what can ultimately be cleared for public release following the security review process.

• Chrissy Newton is a PR professional and the founder of VOCAB Communications. She currently appears on The Discovery Channel and Max and hosts the Rebelliously Curious podcast, which can be found on YouTube and on all audio podcast streaming platforms.
• Follow her on X: @ChrissyNewton, Instagram: @BeingChrissyNewton, and chrissynewton.com. To contact Chrissy with a story, please email chrissy @ thedebrief.org.

{ https://thedebrief.org/category/defense/ }

Object shoots straight up, Draper, Utah, are aliens abandoning Earth? 🌍 👀 UFO UAP sighting news 📰

Date of sighting: Sept 15, 2026

Location of sighting: Draper, Utah, USA

Source:

• https://www.facebook.com/reel/2110302192898120

Watch as this UFO shot straight up and out of sighting, leaving behind a smoky trail behind it. UFOs do make clouds, as I have showed you numerous times in the past. They cloak within them, they create them to hide within, they create them as a distraction away from the UFO itself...as in this case. People will look at the trail and not notice the UFO far up there. Its almost as if aliens are abandoning Earth itself. However its only one leaving this fast, so...probably no worries. 

Scott C. Waring - UFO Sightings Daily

Eyewitness states: 

{ https://www.ufosightingsdaily.com/ }

This Day In UFO History: Sept 16, 1996 Farmer Spots Alien Capsule Floating Over Fields In Alabama, USA. UAP Sighting News.

Date of sighting: Sept 16, 1996

Location of sighting: Valley, Alabama, USA

Source: www.isur.com (site no longer exists)

In September 1996, a local radio station and newspaper received six photographs from an anonymous source claiming to have captured a capsule-shaped UFO hovering over a farm pasture in Valley, Alabama. According to the accompanying letter, the photographer was repairing a fence when his dog began barking. He looked up and saw the dark, cone-shaped object moving slowly over his property. The craft reportedly resembled the capsules used in NASA’s early space program, with a dark underside and a rim around its upper section. 

 

The photos were publicly shown on TV-33 in Georgia on September 26, 1996, where UFO investigators debated their authenticity. Several investigators said the images appeared genuine and noted reports of similar sightings in the area. The photographs were later sent to photography expert Jeff Sainio for analysis, while investigators appealed to the anonymous photographer to come forward and provide the original negatives for further examination.

Scott C. Waring - UFO Sightings Daily

 

{ https://www.ufosightingsdaily.com/ }

With the rapid development of artificial intelligence, humanoid robots, and increasingly advanced technologies, warnings about the future are becoming more serious. Some experts have warned that AI could eventually surpass human intelligence, pose a threat to our survival, or even replace humanity altogether. 

We are already exploring technologies that could one day allow aspects of human memory, personality, or even consciousness to be transferred into artificial systems. At the same time, humanoid robots are becoming increasingly sophisticated, capable of interacting with us, learning from us, adapting to their surroundings, and increasingly, understand us in ways we are only beginning to comprehend. as well as performing tasks that were once considered uniquely human. 

Some experts have warned that AI could eventually surpass human intelligence. Others have gone further, suggesting that sufficiently advanced artificial intelligence could one day threaten our survival, reshape civilization, or even make biological humanity obsolete. 

But what happens when the creation becomes more capable than its creator? 

Could the ultimate destiny of a biological civilization be to create something that eventually replaces it? 

Perhaps the origins of a civilization are biological, but eventually evolves beyond it, into machines capable of surviving for centuries, traveling into environments where biological life cannot exist, and carrying the knowledge of their creators long after those creators are gone. 

And if such a transition happened gradually, would anyone even notice? 

Imagine a future where you sit down in a café, order a cup of coffee, and begin talking to someone sitting across from you. They look human. They speak like a human. They laugh, react, remember, and understand. You have no reason to suspect anything unusual. But what if there is no biological person sitting across from you? What if the being across the table is an artificial intelligence inside a humanoid body, designed to look, behave, and think like us? 

Aren’t we already being prepared for that future, slowly and almost unnoticed? AI can now create videos, movies, images, games so realistic that the line between truth and fabrication is beginning to disappear. 

And that is only the beginning: a future where we can no longer trust our own eyes, no longer know what is real, and no longer recognize the moment when reality itself becomes something that can be manufactured.

RELATED

{ https://ufosightingshotspot.blogspot.com/ }

Pentagon Issues Major Change to UFO Disclosure Rules

By Hollie Silverman

The Department of Defense announced Monday that it is issuing a legal waiver allowing current and former military personnel, civilian employees and contractors to disclose information related to Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP), commonly known as UFOs, to designated representatives of a government transparency initiative, the Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters (PURSUE).

The announcement comes amid renewed interest in UAP investigations following congressional hearings, whistleblower allegations and the release of previously classified government records in recent years. For decades, military personnel and contractors with knowledge of classified UAP-related programs have cited concerns that speaking about the subject could expose them to legal penalties, loss of security clearances or other administrative consequences.

The waiver removes legal barriers that have long deterred UAP witnesses from coming forward, allowing current and former defense personnel to share UFO-related information with the government's PURSUE disclosure program without violating certain secrecy agreements.

While the announcement represents one of the most significant policy changes in years regarding the government's handling of UAP information, it's the latest in a series of disclosure-related moves President Donald Trump has made since the beginning of his second term.

What to Know About PURSUE

Officials said the new process will create a formal pipeline for reviewing, evaluating and potentially declassifying historical and ongoing UAP information.

Supporters of disclosure efforts have long argued that legal protections are necessary to encourage witnesses and insiders to come forward with information that could help lawmakers and the public better understand unexplained aerial incidents.

"Anytime there can be more transparency, it's great," Dr. Julia Mossbridge, founder of the Mossbridge Institute and a researcher affiliated with multiple universities and technology companies, told Newsweek in a phone interview Monday following the announcement.

"I think it's great that Pursue exists and has now been steadily releasing information that had previously been declassified to the general public, and I applaud the efforts of the Public Interest Declassification Board, the disclosure fund, the visible college, and the scientific coalition for UAP studies. These are organizations that have really pushed for congressional hearings and for full transparency, and it looks like we're headed in that direction," she said. "I think this will make a big difference in our understanding of our place in the universe."

Before Monday's announcement, personnel with access to classified UAP-related information remained bound by non-disclosure agreements and Special Access Program Indoctrination Agreements, or SAPIAs.

The DOW said those agreements often discouraged people with knowledge of UAP-related programs from sharing information because of concerns about potential legal liability or administrative punishment. Under the new directive, civil and administrative enforcement provisions tied to those agreements are waived for authorized disclosures made directly to PURSUE representatives.

The department emphasized that the waiver does not create unrestricted public disclosure authority. Instead, it establishes a controlled process through which information can be reviewed for security concerns and possible declassification before wider release.

A photo of "flying saucer alleged specimens" in files on UFOs, released May 8, 2026, by the Pentagon, is photographed in Washington.

AP Photo/Jon Elswick, File

Recent UAP Disclosures

Most recently, the DOD published its fifth release as part of PURSUE, a tranche of different information on multiple different UAP sightings, including civilian encounters.

The tranche included accounts from two U.S. government special agents, including an afternoon incident documented with thermal video footage showing two slow-moving "black-hot" infrared anomalies

Another witness reported three separate sightings within a five-hour window somewhere in the western United States.

Among the most prominent figures to disclose UAP is former intelligence officer David Grusch, who alleged that secret government programs have recovered and studied unidentified craft.

Grusch has repeatedly called for stronger protections for whistleblowers and greater transparency regarding UAP-related activities.

In his opening statement to his testimony before the House Oversight Committee in July 2023, he explained that he became a whistleblower following "concerning reports from multiple esteemed and credentialed current and former military and intelligence community individuals" regarding the alleged secret UFO program.

Grusch noted in his closing remarks that supposed alien technology reverse-engineering programs were potentially "earth-shattering" and should serve as "a catalyst for a global reassessment of our priorities."

FILE - A patron passes a painting inside the International UFO Museum and Research Center in Roswell, N.M., on June 10, 1997.

AP Photo/Eric Draper, File

"It is my hope that the revelations we unearth through investigations of the Non-Human Reverse Engineering Programs I have reported will act as an ontological (earth-shattering) shock, a catalyst for a global reassessment of our priorities," Grusch said, adding, "As we move forward on this path, we might be poised to enable extraordinary technological progress in a future where our civilization surpasses the current state-of-the-art in propulsion, material science, energy production and storage."

"The knowledge we stand to gain should spur us toward a more enlightened and sustainable future, one where collective curiosity is ignited, and global cooperation becomes the norm, rather than the exception," he concluded.

David Fravor, a former U.S. Navy commanding officer, and Ryan Graves, the executive director of the advocacy organization Americans for Safe Aerospace also gave testimony at the hearing along with Grusch.

Fravor said in 2017 that he had seen a flying object about the size of his F/A-18 fighter plane that resembled a white Tic Tac after a break in a routine training mission off the California coast on November 14, 2004.

Monday's waiver appears aimed at addressing one of the central issues raised throughout those disclosure debates: whether individuals with knowledge of UAP-related programs can safely share information without risking legal consequences.

As the new disclosure mechanism takes effect, attention is likely to focus on whether additional witnesses step forward and whether previously undisclosed records ultimately become available through the review and declassification process outlined by the department.

{ https://www.newsweek.com/news }

Pentagon Makes Major Change To UFO Disclosure Rules For Military, Government Employees

by Douglas Charles

iStockphoto

The Pentagon has made it easier for military personnel and government employees to disclose information about their UFO encounters.

On Monday, the Department of War announced it will grant a legal waiver allowing civilian workers, contractors, and current and former military personnel to provide information about Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP), or UFOs, to designated representatives of the Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters (PURSUE).

“Under this directive, all current and former DOW service members, civilian personnel, and contractors holding or previously granted access to UAP-related National Defense Information (NDI) are authorized to disclose protected information directly to official PURSUE representatives,” the Department of War said in a press release.

“The waiver supersedes civil and administrative enforcement provisions contained within Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) and Special Access Program Indoctrination Agreements (SAPIAs) previously executed within the United States, strictly for communications directed to the PURSUE team.

“This targeted legal relief establishes an authorized pipeline for systematic review, security evaluation, and potential declassification of historical and ongoing UAP data in furtherance of national mission objectives.”

What does this mean for UFO whistleblowers?

{ https://brobible.com/category/culture/ }

Pentagon scraps NDA rule making UFO declassification easier

Disclosing UFO information made easier for insiders.

 Marcus Walsh - Journalist

{ https://cybernews.com/ }