Comments on: Green Pigs & Ham

By: Fire Monkey

Fire Monkey — Sun, 22 Jan 2006 01:36:53 +0000

Does anyone know when scientists breed fluorescent red monkey?

^___^

By: Brenden Simpson

Brenden Simpson — Sat, 21 Jan 2006 05:12:19 +0000

You should be fine if you don’t generally eat under blue lights in dark rooms, Bacon.

By: Bacon

Bacon — Fri, 20 Jan 2006 16:31:32 +0000

Why would i want to eat glowing hotdogs, porkchops, and bacon. It makes me not want to eat that stuff again.

By: slomo

slomo — Fri, 20 Jan 2006 04:33:49 +0000

Yeah, the whole “curing disease” angle is standard issue marketing in the biosciences. Mostly the reason for doing this shit is ’cause we can. That, and being able to have something to show for the next grant cycle. It all comes down to $$$. Sorry to be so cynical about my chosen profession.

Best reaction to this news item was a comment at Heretic Fig: I think this says everything about modern civilsation that we need to know.

By: monster

monster — Thu, 19 Jan 2006 22:11:14 +0000

^^ above comment by me, monster.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 19 Jan 2006 22:09:42 +0000

Yeah they’re not doing it for kicks, these are scientists…. It’s up to the general population to giggle at this scientific marvel…

Brendon Simpson picked out the appropriate paragraph of the article.

It’s amazing how people have this knee-jerk “well, ain’t that silly” reaction to a story like this. Yeah, no big deal, they just took a gene from a jellyfish and put it into a pig. Where do you live that this is not a big deal?

I just did the pGLO experiment with E. Coli bacteria last semester, and it’s hella cool. I’ll probably major in genetics if I can. It’s so damn interesting.

By: Brenden Simpson

Brenden Simpson — Wed, 18 Jan 2006 23:03:28 +0000

They are better because every bit in their bodies will glow in the dark, and it’s all about the stem cells, baby.

“…if, for instance, some of its stem cells are injected into another animal, scientists can track how they develop without the need for a biopsy or invasive test.”

I love living in the future.

By: Tim Boucher

Tim Boucher — Wed, 18 Jan 2006 20:25:05 +0000

Yeah, I was wondering about that too. I think they’re using pigs probably because they have certain genetic similarities to humans. And they’re probably using glow in the dark genes because it’s a gene with a very obvious phenotype expression - so it’s easy to measure your success transplanting genes across species.

By: jp

jp — Wed, 18 Jan 2006 20:21:58 +0000

my question is, why are they making pigs glow in the dark in the first place? it’s not like you’re ever gonna have to find your pig in an unlit room at night. why can’t they make bats glow? or, better yet, make mosquitoes glow so we can see ‘em when they’re buzzing around our beds at night.

i can think of about a dozen things that would be better subjects for glow-in-the-dark experiments than pigs.