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Two parallel neural ectoderm progenitors contribute to the developing brain

664 points · 258 comments · emigre

  1. itvision · · focus · HN ↗
    What a way to oversell the discovery.

    The reality is:

        * Different brain regions have different functions: ancient knowledge.
        * Different regions contain distinct cell types and molecular programs: also well established.
        * Anterior and posterior brain structures may trace back to fundamentally separate progenitor lineages that were independently specified very early in evolution and development: that's the interesting new result.
    
    The headline should have been: "Human forebrain and hindbrain arise from distinct embryonic progenitor lineages" - not that we have "two organs" in the brain.
    1. Spooky23 · · focus · HN ↗
      The audience for a news headline is a layperson who may have no knowledge of or context to infer past factoids about brain regions or evolutionary biology.

      There’s a balance between being informative to the audience and satisfying for pedants.

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