23English ALANBAA Thursday, 5 September, 2013

Media Science Censored cartoons draw Mini human brains grown animated response from experts from stem cells (Today) Take a cat, take way “Speedy Gonzalez” a mouse, and let them chase cartoons have all but van- Khloé each other. That’s pretty ished from the airwaves. much the story line of all (Debate rages in the La- Kardashian 163 “Tom & Jerry” car- tino-American commu- Khloé Kardashian Odom toons that started airing nity over whether those Attends Katy Perry›s La- in 1940. It’s good, whole- cartoons are racially-in- bor Day Party Without La- some kids fare. sensitive; Gonzalez is a mar Odom http://eonli. But what if you took that hero, but the other mice ne/17GZ3CN same cat, and that same around him are often por- mouse, and put them into trayed as slow or lazy.) blackface? “They’re totally over- That’s what happened compensating now,” says in 1948’s “Mouse Clean- Aguirre. “You alienate and (LiveScience) The first complete ing,” when Tom briefly upset people because you’re living model of the developing human wears blackface, and in trying to cover up culture, brain has been created in a lab dish. 1951’s “Casanova Cat,” and that’s what irks people.” Researchers grew human stem cells where Jerry ends up do- There are other ways of in an environment that encouraged ing a minstrel act while dealing with changing so- them to form pea-size gobs of brain in blackface. cial definitions of political tissue, which developed into distinct It’s hard to imagine ei- correctness, however, than brain tissues, including a cerebral cor- Kate Upton ther cartoon showing up on is also the history of their the episode was animat- just pulling whole collec- tex and retina. TV today, and there’s lots censorship. Over the de- ed one director was hop- tions from the shelves. His- The minibrains were used to model Kate Upton to Receive of other cartoon content cades, cartoon collections ing to do a “full frontal” torians like Beck point to microcephaly, a human genetic disorder Model of the Year Award from the early to mid-20th like “Merrie Melodies” or of the children, inspired the way Disney has handled in which brain size is dramatically re- http://eonli.ne/1a28xqF Century that is no longer “Looney Tunes” have been by Maurice Sendak’s “In it, with its “Walt Disney duced. Though not capable of conscious- considered acceptable fare edited or hidden away be- the Night Kitchen.” Treasures” DVDs, pack- ness or other higher cognitive functions, for mass audiences, espe- fore airing for reasons in- “Basically, Nickelodeon aged in sober silver box- the minibrains allow scientists to study cially children. Sure, car- cluding excessive violence sent back the storyboards es rather than garish kid- aspects of the developing human brain toons like “Mouse Clean- and racist characteriza- and said, ‘Have you gone friendly colors, and hosted that are difficult to model in animals. ing” live on the internet, as tions. But it’s worth bear- mad?’” Klickstein said. by critic Leonard Maltin. “The mouse brain is not always a do other shorts with chal- ing in mind that those old More problematic for “They’ve released good model system for the human brain,” lenging content. But what cartoons were originally the network was “Ren and every cartoon with ra- study researcher Jüergen Knoblich, of should happen to them? designed for all ages to Stimpy,” which felt like cial stereotypes, Mick- the Austrian Academy of Science’s In- That’s the battle: Stu- see in the movie theater, a subversive version of a ey Mouse as Uncle Tom, stitute of Molecular Biotechnology in dios can get nervous about then altered once brought kids’ cartoon, and featured all stuff that would not Vienna, said at a news conference. “Our revisiting their history by to TV and targeted solely an “almost S&M relation- run on the Disney Chan- system allows us to study human-spe- Pippa releasing DVD collections at children. ship between Ren and St- nel,” says Beck (who ac- cific features of brain development.” that includes the offending “The networks or the impy,” says Klickstein. knowledges that Disney Other groups have grown small piec- Middleton material (“Tom & Jerry: studio don’t want to expose “The violence, the puk- is imperfect, keeping its es of neural tissue in the lab before, The Golden Collection Vol. that to kids,” said animation ing, the farting, and the partially-animated “Song but none has been able to successfully Pippa Middleton Engaged? 2,” which would have fea- historian Jerry Beck, who scatological stuff – that’s of the South” film under grow tissue that contained both a cor- Reports Claim Boyfriend tured “Mouse Cleaning” runs the website Cartoon what they wanted, that’s wraps). “They put those tex — the specialized outer layer of Nico Jackson Proposed and “Casanova Cat,” is Research. “The problem is what they were buying things out without com- the brain — and other brain regions, http://eonli.ne/1a25n62 being “postponed,” said a that people who grew up when they hired (creator plaint by anybody, be- Knoblich said. Warner Bros. Home Video and loved those cartoons, John Kricfalusi),” Klick- cause they’re in context.” To create the minibrains, Knoblich and rep). But animation histo- they’re works of art and stein said. “But the anger Maltin agrees. “I under- his team took human embryonic stem rians say that’s the wrong are part of film history. of some of those charac- stand a studio’s reluctance cells or induced pluripotent stem cells attitude to take, noting that It’s disturbing that they ters made them nervous.” to show racially and eth- — both types of cells with a capacity to when the cartoons are put get censored and edited.” It all came to a head nically-sensitive images develop into any kind of tissue — and in the right context, they Older cartoons aren’t with 1992’s “Man’s Best to children,” he writes in grew the cells in conditions that allowed can be treated as the art the only sort that have ex- Friend,” which got banned an email. “That’s an ap- them to form a tissue called neuroecto- form they actually are. perienced jittery network from Nickelodeon for vi- propriate stance to take. derm, which develops into the nervous “You can’t censor these or studio censorship. As olence, tobacco usage and But … if you put these system. The researchers embedded frag- things and put them away Mathew Klickstein, au- too many scatological jokes cartoons into a proper ments of the tissue in droplets of gel to and pretend they never hap- thor of “Slimed: An Oral even for the network. (It historical context — and create a scaffold to guide further growth. Dina pened,” said Raul Aguirre, History of Nickelodeon’s saw air on Spike in 2003.) warn parents that they They then transferred the droplets to a a former Disney animator Golden Age,” says, early But that episode led to Kric- may find those episodes spinning bioreactor that increased nutri- Eastwood who now runs the podcast Nick cartoons like “Ren falusi being canned. offensive or inappropriate ent absorption. Dina Eastwood Speaks Out “Man Vs. Art.” “Those and Stimpy” and even “Ru- Still, it’s the omission of — I think you’ve done After 15 to 20 days, the tissue formed in Support of Clint East- cartoons represent a stage grats” contained content entire episodes from DVD your due diligence.” minibrains called cerebral organoids, each wood After Separation An- our culture was in at the that made studios nervous. collections that rankle ani- enclosing a fluid-filled region, much like nouncement http://eonli. time. As a cartoonist, our In “Naked Tommy,” a mation experts most. Agu- the cerebral ventricles that contain cerebro- ne/17GwMfz work reflects what’s going 1994 episode of “Rugrats,” irre says that as a Mexican- spinal fluid in the human brain. After 20 on in the world.” all of the children shuck American, for example, to 30 days, some of the organoids formed The history of cartoons off their clothing; before he’s disappointed at the defined brain areas, including a cerebral cortex (the brain’s complex outer layer); retinal tissue, the light-sensitive part of the eye; meninges, the membranes that Business envelope the brain; and choroid plexus, which produces the cerebrospinal fluid that bathes the brain. The minibrains grew 2 to 3 millime- Singapore Air budget ters (0.08-0.1 in) in diameter, and have survived in lab dishes for 10 months so Lea Michele far. Their size is limited, because they carrier offers kid-free zone lack a circulatory system to provide nu- Lea Michele Shares View trients and oxygen to their core regions. of Labor Day Getaway- (nbcnews) Would you communications manag- As a result, the brains could not devel- -See the Pic! http://eonli. pay extra to be able to scoot er for North America. (In op the many layers seen in a real human ne/1a1XfCB your seat away from small fact, the airline recently brain, the researchers said. kids on a plane? Singapore introduced new family In addition to modeling how a healthy Airlines’ budget carrier, and kid-friendly ameni- human brain develops, the organoids Scoot, is betting you will. ties, including boarding can be used to model brain disorders. The airline, which cur- passes — but no special Knoblich and his colleagues used their rently flies from Singapore seating — for stuffed an- minibrains to study microcephaly, a dis- to 11 destinations in Asia imals and dolls.) order not easily studied in mice because and Australia, has created But in the modern un- their brains are already smaller than hu- a premium “Scoot in Si- bundled-amenities world man ones. They took skin cells from a lence” section at the front of airlines, having the “op- microcephaly patient and reprogrammed of its economy class cabin. portunity” to pay to sit out- them into stem cells, which they then There, passengers can side a kid zone on a do- grew into brain organoids. Simon pay about $14 extra per mestic carrier may just be The mini microcephaly brains grown ticket in exchange for more a matter of time. from the patient’s cells were smaller than Cowell legroom and the promise “I can see airlines such ones grown from normal tissue, but had Simon Cowell Talks Baby’s that “the under 12s will be as United and Delta, who more neuron growth. The results sug- Sonogram: “It Is Just Surre- someplace else.” already offer separate zones gest the brains of microcephaly patients al” http://eonli.ne/17GhXtv “I’d pay to sit in an with extra legroom seats, develop neurons too early, before their adults-only section,” said trialing whether they can brains have grown large enough. Other Keri Coull, an “unemployed clared the upper decks of define. turn part of these zones experiments showed the orientation in mum/graduate” from San its A380s kid-free. The air- “What about the pas- into a quiet zone, depend- which the stem cells divide could also Francisco now living in line also bans kids from senger seated in the last ing on the configuration of play a role in the disorder. Scotland. She thinks others its first class cabins. row of the kid-free sec- the aircraft,” said Kollau. Biologist Gong Chen of Pennsylvania would too. “I loved my 2 “These quiet zones are tion when an infant begins The audience rushing State University, who was not involved 1/2 year-old, but returning part of a wider trend that screaming behind him or to buy these seats might with the research, called it “a remarkable from Mexico was traumat- sees airlines providing pas- her?” said Anya Clowers be business travelers, who achievement,” adding, “it opens the door ic for other passengers.” sengers more choice and of JetwithKids.com. are “universally in favor of for many studies on the human brain us- Scoot is not the first control of the onboard ex- For now, representa- kid-free zones,” said Joe ing human neurons.” Asian airline to set aside perience without having to tives from American and Brancatelli, who runs the This method of growing minibrains Scarlett a cabin section that is off pay a lot to upgrade to a Delta said they have no business traveler newslet- in a lab could be used to or test medica- limit to kids. different class,” said Ray- plans to introduce kid-free ter JoeSentMe. “(At least) tions, or to study other brain disorders. Johansson In February 2013, long- mond Kollau of Amster- zones. And the no-kids-al- until they have kids and “Ultimately, we would like to move to Scarlett Johansson haul, low-cost carrier AirA- dam-based AirlineTrends. lowed idea “doesn’t quite are banished to the kid more common disorders, like schizophre- Says “Hillary Clinton sia X introduced a kid- com. fit the overall familial vi- zone when they cash-in nia and autism,” Knoblich said, though Would Make a Wonder- free “Quiet Zone” on its Of course, in the close sion Lufthansa is embrac- miles to take the family he added that it’s premature to speculate ful President” http://eonli. A330 aircraft. And last quarters of an airplane, a ing,” said Christina Sem- on holiday.” when scientists will develop minibrains ne/1a1OdWr year Malaysia Airlines de- quiet zone can be hard to mel, the airline’s corporate complex enough to do so.