DEVOLUTION, Updated
Jellyfish always
have fascinated me. They are really one of the earliest forms of animal life on
this planet. This picture depicts a type of jellyfish that glow in the
dark. Well kind of glow in the dark.
National Geographic indicates that these animals contain a green fluorescent protein that makes them glow
My favorite scientific journal goes on to explain:
In 1961 researcher Osamu Shimomura of the Marine Biological Laboratory in
After extracting the molecule from 10,000 specimens, Shimomura found the
protein that creates the glow.
At some point, a light bulb went off. Some of Shimomura's colleagues realized
that the protein could be attached to other proteins--enabling scientists to
mark proteins of their choice with a green glow.
Since then, Shimomura's green fluorescent protein (GFP) has been used to
decrypt previously invisible processes, like the spread of cancer or the
development of nerve cells--earning
Shimomura and colleagues a Nobel Prize in 2008.
Fluorescent proteins have also been used to engineer some truly strange beasts
(and the odd plant), such as the glowing puppies, monkeys, mice, fish and other
animals on the following pages.
I do not feel that
the world is 6000 years old, I fully accept the concept of evolution, with a
small deviation that I will explain later.
But somehow the scientists were able to use genetic engineering to get
these mammals to glow. It is not like
they injected the animals, exactly. They
kind of toyed with the genes of these living beings and made them glow.
Now I get confused
when I read articles like this one. You evidently have to shine a green UV
light on the creatures for the glowing to occur. I think it is the same kind of
light CSI uses to find sperm in motel rooms, but that is another story. It does not appear that they glow without
this added light.
But a new step in
the evolution of our scientific abilities has recently been achieved. Now the biologists can genetically engineer
the animals so that not only do they 'glow' but their children will also glow.
Neat, huh?
Japan, May 27,
2009--Who knew artificial
evolution could be cute? Common marmosets Kel (left) and Kou, pictured at Keio
University School of Medicine in an undated photo released May 27, have skin
that glows green under UV light (insets).
Born of genetically engineered, glowing parents, the baby monkeys came by their
fluorescence "naturally"--the first time artificially introduced
genes have been passed from parent to offspring in primates. The advance may
raise the specter of genetically engineered lines of other primates, such as
humans.
Twenty years ago or so there was this band called Devo. http://www.clubdevo.com/
The name was short for a concept dear to my heart: Devolution. The idea is that 'we' are not evolving upward, but downward. Wiki says:
In common parlance,
"devolution", or backward evolution is the notion the
species generally evolve into
more "primitive"
forms by losing adaptations no longer necessary in a new environment. According
to this view, changes from one biome to another may usher in pressures to weed
out an obsolete function which is no longer useful for survival after the
transition, and that the probability of losing a organic function in a new
biome, via the conventional evolutionary pressures to "evolve", is
more frequent and explainable than the synthesis of a new organic function.
If you choose not to believe me, take another look at a
snapshot taken at the 2008 Republican Convention in
http://www.nytimes.com/1987/06/09/science/concern-over-genetics-prompts-a-new-coalition-of-critics.html?pagewanted=2
CONCERN OVER GENETICS PROMPTS A NEW COALITION OF CRITICS
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Featured_picture_candidates/Glowing_tobacco_plant
www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,962873,00.html
OF FIREFLIES AND TOBACCO PLANTS
June 3, 2009 5:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
What a find!!!
"'Nothing gives me cause for alarm about the patenting of life,'' Mr. Capron said." 1987!
Patenting life. Ha!!!
Good job Resistance.
June 3, 2009 7:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
DD! You, of all people! My fellow Minnesotan!
The RNC was held in St. Paul. You know, that quiet old place just across the river...
June 3, 2009 5:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
And you survived it? I'm impressed.
June 3, 2009 5:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
Indeed I did.
June 3, 2009 7:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hmmm....I'm gonna have to add this accomplishment to an already long list of things I like about you, Old Grouch. ;)
June 3, 2009 7:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
The worst insult I ever suffered was unintentional. Back in the summer of 2000 I was at a jazz club in Philly with a buddy of mine and we really liked the band. We wanted to see them again and spoke with the drummer between sets to ask where their upcoming dates were going to be in the area. He was more than happy to oblige us with the schedule and then innocently asked if we were with the "convention". The convention was the Republican convention to be held in Philly the next week. Our response was much like the Soprano gangsters in the beer commerical, "Ooooh! Do we look like Republicans? Shit, what is it, the clothes? Shit, we're not Republicans!, Hell Svend isn't even American." He started laughing, we started laughing, but it still ruined my night.
June 4, 2009 12:22 AM | Reply | Permalink
heeeeheeee. This is precious also Mark. I was 200 miles away thank the good lord.
I do remember that every year it seemed we would have shriners convention. They would ride around in trucks and convertibles with the silly hats, dead drunk.
what the hell is the difference?
June 4, 2009 12:29 AM | Reply | Permalink
Oh jeeeez, and I knew that toooooo. I was just attempting to save St. Paul all that ignominy.
June 3, 2009 6:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, we do have the street rods in front of Porky's on weekends...
June 3, 2009 7:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
At least you guys got enough funding to get that I-35 bridge rebuilt in record time. But I'd stay off it though, a rush job in time for the convention built by Republicans, what could go wrong?
June 4, 2009 12:26 AM | Reply | Permalink
Maybe Dickday should have remembered what St Paul was before it became , and seeing the Republicans, it should have reminded him, the convention was in St Paul?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Paul,_Minnesota
The settlement originally began at present-day Lambert's Landing but was referred to as Pig's Eye,
June 3, 2009 8:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
Pigs eye. I did not have to look up the link. hahaha
All Minnesotans know their capital...
June 3, 2009 9:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
I am having problems formulating a response to your post. In part, because of the assumptions that are embedded in evolution ... and devolution.
What bioengineers are doing is just that - engineering. The manipulation of genetic material. It is outside of evolution - which is a process that occurs under environmental pressure. There is nothing in any natural way that the bioluminescence of the jelly fish or firefly would get into a marmoset, kitten or puppy, or even a gold fish.
Now, we have arrived at a point where certain type of genetic engineering can be passed from parents to their young. This should actually raise some alarms somewhere. Why, because there is more that we don't know than we do about genetics. We do not know how a genome works as a whole. We can identify what some parts do, but not their relationship or role to the millions of possible combinations of other genes.
In short, we are playing with something we do not understand, and we letting that change out into the "wild" (with plants, with salmon, and soon with humans). We do not know what that will do. We do know that genetically modified corn is destroying indigenous maize varieties via cross pollination. We do not want to discuss that we may be opening Pandora's Box because there is BIG MONEY invested in the commodification of the genetic material.
June 3, 2009 6:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
No, I am just saying that we have evolved to the point where devolution can now take place. We have nowhere to go but DOWN.
And it looks like we are taking everything else with us.
It really is a joke.
Maybe not, hahahahaha
June 3, 2009 6:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sadly, I think we started down way before now. The only hope for the manatee and the other inhabitants of the planet is that in the rage of devolution humans don't take the entire planet out with us.
Sorry, I have trouble with being humourous about this topic.
June 3, 2009 7:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
Didn't Mark Twain say something like: " Man has devolved from the ape and can devolve no further, except for the French"? Now, of course, the French must defer to American bankers, politicians, etc.
Sigh. "It's not easy being green..." -- Kermit/Sesame Street
June 3, 2009 10:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
Its not easy being green. hahaha. Pretty good Belle
June 4, 2009 8:29 AM | Reply | Permalink
I admire the valuable information you offer in your articles. I will bookmark your blog and have my children check up here often. I am quite sure they will learn lots of new stuff here than anybody else!
laser eye surgery
June 14, 2010 6:15 AM | Reply | Permalink
I'm sorry, Dick, but the more I read and viewed the more ... well, icky it all felt. I agree with Rowan. I prefer my plants and animals the old fashioned way - natural.
June 3, 2009 6:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh Missy. We are creating entirely new species. Not by way of old fashioned domestication. But by playing God.
It is weird to look at though!!1
June 3, 2009 6:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
Is that why Norm looks so, uh, strange?
June 3, 2009 6:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think it is Coleman, he served as one of the doormen if I recall correctly.
June 3, 2009 6:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWXoFAaZ11M
That doorman?
June 3, 2009 7:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
I dunno but I will look right after I submit this.
June 3, 2009 7:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
Actually, he's the handyman....
June 3, 2009 7:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
But....you see one Republican in heels and a bustier, you're sure to see more to follow....that's wot I always say.
June 3, 2009 7:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
Who can take a sunrise, sprinkle it with dew
Cover it with choc'late and a miracle or two
The Handy Man, oh the Handy Man can
The Handy Man can 'cause he mixes it with love and makes the world taste good
Who can take a rainbow, wrap it in a sigh
Soak it in the sun and make a groovy lemon pie
The Handy Man, the Handy Man can
The Handy Man can 'cause he mixes it with love and makes the world taste good
June 3, 2009 8:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
Think of J Edgar Hoover in the outfit you describe - with a cigar of course - demanding that his agents investigate the source of fecal matter on his patio.
June 4, 2009 1:05 AM | Reply | Permalink
adelfarb!!! There are some resentments that fade, fade away. I mean the guy ran the secret police for forty years...
Death can heal a lot of wounds over time.
June 4, 2009 8:32 AM | Reply | Permalink
The article also stated that said feces did not originate from one of JEH's many enemies but in fact was the product of a raccoon. Nonetheless to determine the nature of the malefactor the resources of the greatest (?) investigative apparatus of the US government was brought into play.
June 4, 2009 10:28 AM | Reply | Permalink
Dammit Dick! I wrote a whole long beauuuutiful comment on the first version explaining the deeper meaning of why that picture of repubs wouldn't open and why God wanted it that way. All gone. Well, okay, it wasn't that great. It was about NOT WANTING TO SEE that dam picture of repubs. I don't know what my dominant emotion is when I see or hear these guys. And it is kind of like how I feel about the morlocks. Except I know the latter don't exist, which attenuates things. In any case, it's either fear (of the mindless damage they can do), disgust (aversion of perceptual contact with them, miasma and all that), or anger/hatred/hostility (just wanting for them to go away, disappear, for their present incarnation to go into extinction). It's a funny mix of all three, mostly.
I mean there's definitely a political devolution taking place, as the republican spirit is distilled into its pure essence of simple hatred for the Other, the Other being - in Cheney's own words - The Whole World. I'm somewhat more optimistic about the evolution of the rest of humanity. We'll adapt to reality eventually, hopefully before we destroy too much of the earth and it's resources.
June 3, 2009 8:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sorry Obey, as I was just telling someone, I ran into a copyright problem with Morlocks and it took me three hours to straighten it out. I still am kind of breaking the law, but I took it from Wiki.
You see, I work into this three page joke and the fricking punch line gets erased!!!
So I am sorry. I almost just threw it away.
I was quite taken by this genetic thing and Resistence up top there has a good link to 1987. THEY are patenting life.
But a hundred years from now you and I might look down and see mankind glowing in the fricking dark!!!
hahaQHHA
June 3, 2009 8:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
Someone used to post here, before its present incarnation, (damn! I can't remember the term he used, but it had do with humans evolving into partial humans and partial computers). I thought he was nuts, but then found a few articles that made me think this is in the works. It was quite some time ago, and I tried to go back (the old TPM was easier) to get him to respond to me but he never did.
Keep in mind that I am having a senior moment, and it may come back to me, but I am starting to believe that we are on the cusp of the next evolutionary step.
I would also like to say that I have no confidence that it is a step in the right direction, but it might be.
Oh, I wish I could remember who that blogger was -- I have an idea he is far more advanced than we are -- he had REALLY interesting points!
Any oldtimers know what I'm talking about?
June 3, 2009 9:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, I have been here 7 months and I have read some evolution stuff. But you bring up an expanded subject since mine was just a long weak joke with a punch line.
I mean they are putting computer chips in brains, people are THINKING INTO THEIR COMPUTERS. Like this is nuts.
Computer chips to help people with artificial limbs.
Go ahead CVille, you got nothin to lose. Do a blog.
You do know how to write, well as a matter of fact.
June 3, 2009 9:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Glenn whats his name, the infamous Instapundit used to write about stuff like that, the singularity or some such garbage, promising us all immortality in 50 years thru science or something. What that fantasy would mean for the future of our already overpopulated and strained planet I don't think he considers.
June 4, 2009 12:49 AM | Reply | Permalink
Dickday, I realize yours was a musing, humorous type of post. However, it is seems that you, like most people, don't understand evolution in a scientific sense.
[ Wait a moment while I transform myself into my scientist uniform. Imagine me wearing goggles and a white lab coat, standing behind a demonstration table, with Bunsen burners alight and Erlenmeyer flasks boiling down some vibrantly colored solutions. A large and aging chart of the periodic table is mounted above a worn chalk board. ]
Evolution doesn't have a direction. We humans are neither the top of some hierarchy, nor the end of some linear chain of progress.
Evolution is a process whereby a population of creatures optimize the ability to populate an ecological niche, without intent and without understanding. Conditions change, some niches close, others open, most just shift subtly, and the population finds a local optimum once again.
It is purely our own ego to suppose we are the pinnacle of evolution. We are simply the best at the niche we occupy, and we are good at altering our environment to provide the niche we need. But in other niches, we are maladapted. We can't live in the water like sharks can. We can't live in the natural desert like lizards can. If the only stuff left to eat was poop, we'd starve, but there are many creatures adapted to eating only that.
People tend to have a myopic sense of time, on the order of the human life span (~100 years) and see things at static, and change as threatening to that stasis. But evolution is a dynamic process, and it is happening all the time, all around us.
There is no such thing as green UV light. UV = ultraviolet, frequencies higher than violet. Green has a much lower frequency than violet, so green UV makes no sense. No doubt what is going on is that this molecule fluoresces green when excited by UV light.
June 3, 2009 9:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah, when was a last time a frog made you glow...hahahahahaha
Actually Frustum, you make great points. I asked CVille to, but you should put on a lab coat and do a blog on this.
Hell you will get a hundred hits without a punch line.
Evolution just fascinates me. I was on Yug's blog a couple days ago--and I think TPMGary straightened me out on light.
We really do not know its entire composition.
And we sure the hell do not have all the answers as to what evolution is, that is all the processes at work. Do external matters actually act directly on the genes...like radiation from the sun or the rocks for that matter or the sun...
It would be fun. And you sure the hell know more about what you are talking about than me.
Oh and the light thing confused me.
Thank you, I was probably misreading Nat GEo.
June 3, 2009 10:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
last time a frog made you glow
A frog, no. But you can *smoke the venom of the Bufo Alvarius Toad. which contains 5-methoxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine (5-MeO-DMT).
*(Note to "experimenters"--Sash Shulgin, and Bear Owsley say: "No licking!")
June 3, 2009 10:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
Uh, hi Jolly. Remember again. You and I both have to take our meds EVERYDAY.
THE END
June 3, 2009 11:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
take our meds
Hmm, you could be on to something here...Let me check: (The pink one?, yes. The purple one? ok.)
Wait a minute! What are these little spansules with all the multicolored tiny beads inside?? I thought I traded all of those for those 'shrooms. I wonder what they are for?....Only one way to find out...
June 3, 2009 11:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
hahahahah. they only give me one vial. my shrink knows I would only get confused. and she is attempting to prevent confusion.
June 3, 2009 11:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
STOP! Your description sounds like a suppository.
Just kidding
Below I found a site discussing mushrooms that glow
June 3, 2009 11:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
a suppository
Uh-oh....I ground up the spansules in a mortar and pestle and then I...never mind....
June 4, 2009 12:45 AM | Reply | Permalink
Maybe your pharmacist had a bad day, and when you called him about what you should do, with this medication, there might have been a communication problem?
June 4, 2009 2:16 AM | Reply | Permalink
what you should do, with this medication
He said something about "tiny time pills" and I thought, "Gee, I'm in a kinda hurry" so I thought it made sense to grind'em up and...
June 4, 2009 3:39 AM | Reply | Permalink
So that's what they mean by "RUSH"?
June 4, 2009 9:50 AM | Reply | Permalink
"RUSH"?
Well, you are on the right track here...El Gordo prefers his oxy administered via suppository, but, alas, the increasing volume of *buttockal mass intervening between the "insertion point" and the orifice itself rendered this route problematic...in response, he has sacrificed his nasal pharynges.
*disclaimer:I made this word up, specially for the occasion. Sue me.
June 4, 2009 9:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
The basic unit is a mutation.
Evolution is a directed graph of mutations that has at least prevented extinction for a species. It may, therefore, be considered to broadly have a direction where "forward" means -- in extremely general terms -- more optimised and dominant. (Of course, it is not really possible to move "backwards" on the graph, "devolution" would simply move to a different "worse" point.) Traditionally the term has also meant strictly genetic mutations, but as our understanding broadens, this may become a pointless distinction.
That said, the whole "devolution" thing is as pathetic as it is pretentious. Starting from its very basic premises, at the scale where evolution is truly measured, in hundreds of thousands or millions of years, the particular kind of intelligence humans have and has enabled the species to discover nuclear power, quantum mechanics etc. may in fact turn out to have been disadvantageous!
Further, the whole "natural" vs. "unnatural" evolution argument is silly. It is a reflection of our extremely limited experience of evolution, in which -- to our knowledge -- it has only been "natural" (please do not consider this an endorsement of willy-nilly genetic manipulation, that is an entirely different matter.) So, if from our very narrow perspective it should become necessary to leave Earth to avoid the extinction of the species (term used loosely), and we are able to do so by e.g. achieving technological singularity or by having immense solar wings to enable space flight (Dan Simmons' Hyperion saga), we have evolved in that same narrow perspective. The means by which this was achieved are completely immaterial, only the end result matters in whether this is considered evolutionary: humankind is now better-adapted to survive the in the current state of the universe.
June 4, 2009 9:04 AM | Reply | Permalink
So, do you think this is as good as it's gonna get for the human race, dd? :o) This is the best we can do? Where we are now?
I am not ready to admit defeat. Not only do I want to glow in the dark, I want to become pure energy and flit around the universe like dandelion fluff on a blustery day.
June 3, 2009 9:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
And who says poetry and science do not mix?
June 3, 2009 10:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
There's a good chance, flower, that in the grand scheme of things, we are all just flitting around the universe like dandelion fluff, and not just on blustery days.
Enjoy:)
June 3, 2009 10:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
Gary, see this line. I mean dandelion fluff, I mean this is great stuff, huh!!!!
June 3, 2009 10:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
To Flowerchild: Then you could be carried by the solar winds, and you’d light up my day.
A thought about light
(Genesis 1:3) . . .“Let light come to be.. . .
Wow!
It’s amazing the science that has evolved from the study of light.
Our two luminaries, photosynthesis, Oil for artificial light, lasers, fluorescence, X-rays, gamma rays and UV. You could study for years and would continually learn. Solar Power the tip of the iceberg. All because of the light of knowledge.
http://animals.howstuffworks.com/animal-facts/bioluminescence1.htm
Bioluminescent Life Forms
June 3, 2009 11:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
You know Resistance....Flower has to get the Knightly Line of the Day..
But I hereby award you the Knightly Comments of the Day Award for this here TPMCafe Site, given to all of you from all of me.
June 3, 2009 11:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
I am humbled.
I would like to thank......everyone.
God knows, I love this TPM and our members
I mean you
June 3, 2009 11:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'll do that job, lighting up yer day....as long as I get paid union scale wages. ;o)
June 4, 2009 11:39 AM | Reply | Permalink
The pay is not so great but the benefits are out of this world.
June 4, 2009 12:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh and Flower, I said this elsewhere but you certainly are awarded the Knightly Poetry and Line of the Day Award for this here TPMCafe site, given to all of you from all of me.
June 4, 2009 12:23 AM | Reply | Permalink
Chi migwetch, dd. It is an honor to receive such and award. :o)
June 4, 2009 11:43 AM | Reply | Permalink
Dick
1) you're doing my bit!
2) I covered GFPs last month. I knew noone read it! http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/blogs/wademorris/2009/05/daily-science-fix---chemistry.php
3) Nice job. Maybe I need to do more humor?
4) Check out this video on Yellow Flourscent Proteins. Its cool.
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/05/zfishtissueformatio/
June 3, 2009 11:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yug, I apologize with my whole heart and soul. I just scanned your blog and I never even commented on it.
damn
Shit. just cut and paste it and run it again. At least my Nat Geo proves a May 27th date.
I feel bad about this. I always read your stuff.
Maybe it was when you just started.
RUN IT AGAIN. PLAY WITH IT.
Again, my apologies. I would have at least cited you.
Oh and I like this extra link.
June 3, 2009 11:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
I second that
Yug, you do provide a good service. I too must find the time and review your earlier work.
Keep up the good work
June 3, 2009 11:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
I did a post two days ago with the best of last months links and nobody even looked at it. I thereafter assumed a "what you missed" post was considered shitty.
LOL. And thanks Resistance.
And DD - todays post is for you. And tomorrow too!
June 4, 2009 12:09 AM | Reply | Permalink
Yug you rock. Whatever you post, I will be there.
June 4, 2009 12:11 AM | Reply | Permalink
I reposted once and several commenters thanked me for it. Sometimes, it just the wrong time with the right stuff, and the right stuff is right anytime, unless it's Right, if you know what I mean, but most of us like that stuff too, if it isn't written in troll and you don;t mind us cracking wise all about it.
June 4, 2009 3:20 AM | Reply | Permalink
I like this post very much. I like your thought patterns.
Please do one on Crabby Patties. Or lupins.
June 4, 2009 12:22 AM | Reply | Permalink
Okay Joe Wood. I shall think about Crabby Patties and lupins.
But I will have to Wiki them. hahaha
No kidding. I will. I just wrote it down. hahaha
June 4, 2009 12:32 AM | Reply | Permalink
Actually, do one on fractal geometry.
Its mindblowing!!!
June 4, 2009 12:39 AM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah this is just great. If I keep eating pork does that mean I'm going to grow phosphorescent green toenails? Seriously how the hell is that helping anything?
Why aren't these guys working on fixing diseases caused by insults to the human body caused by industrial environmental degradation or vaccines for diseases bred in industrial animal gulag farms instead? It's not like there isn't serious work that needs to be done with genes. Hate to be grumpy but when so many people think genetic manipulation is freaking dangerous enough to ban these guys seem to be doing their best to prove them right.
June 4, 2009 12:42 AM | Reply | Permalink
Yikes, markg8, this is exactly what they are doing. This is basic research, and this is part of the foundation upon which future genetic repairs will be built.
Being able to tweak a someone's genome to prevent, say, passing on Tay Sachs disease, or removing the sickle cell anemia defect, is orders of magnitude more complicated than haphazardly inserting a bonus protein, like this one, in the germ cell line. Learning to do a "dumb trick" like this is a stepping stone towards something more meaningful.
I think people have in mind the Edison model of invention -- lone inventor is struck with a novel thought and after some feverish tinkering, out pops some novelty to entertain us all. It rarely works that way.
June 4, 2009 1:19 AM | Reply | Permalink
More simply, if they want to put a trace on something to see where it goes, then they put in the stuff they want to learn about and include the glowing dye in that same place. It's a freaking radioactive sonogram without the machine or the radiation, i.e. whatever they put into the pigs ended up on their nose and toes. What if they had put the dye on the liver? Where would it go then? Turn out the lights! Let's find out! The dye is the breadcrumbs to find their way.
June 4, 2009 3:24 AM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah Mark. I mean they were attempting to underline the 'fact' that this tech is helpful in researching the spread of cancer and such.
June 4, 2009 9:03 AM | Reply | Permalink
I agree with all that guys but making animals look radioactive for the hell of it isn't the way to win public support. Especially when wingnuts will pounce on it.
June 4, 2009 10:34 AM | Reply | Permalink
It reminds me of the geniuses who put a peanut gene in genetically modified tomatoes as a marker around the same time airlines stopped serving peanuts on airplanes because for those with severe peanut allergies even smelling them can trigger a nasty reaction.
June 4, 2009 10:38 AM | Reply | Permalink
This is a nice visual example of a process that mankind has actually been doing for years. Ever see a pug dog? The breed has been around a long time, created by mankind, not nature.
The ability to swap genes (that's what introducing GFP genes into these animals is) was first invented by bacteria. For instance, drug resistance plasmids in pathogens. Shortly after the introduction of antibiotics it was noted that resistant strains were appearing. It was discovered that bacteria can swap genetic material - even between different species - on small segments called plasmids. Genetic engineering was enabled by the discovery of the enzymes that normally perform DNA synthesis, repair and translation. Identification of unusual types of enzymes having these capabilities (taq polymerase and restriction endonucleases among others) made possible genetic engineering. Nature (so to speak) invented genetic engineering and mankind has been a little slower in recognizing this capability.
So don't be too afraid, this is just mankind demonstrating with parlor tricks the enormous creativity already present in nature. This bell can not be un-rung. The secrets are widely known and we can only hope that they will not be used in such a way as to destroy.
June 4, 2009 12:59 AM | Reply | Permalink
See this, Dick? We knew pugs were evil. Now it seems antibiotics can't even kill 'em.
But the real question is... who created the defective little bastards?
June 4, 2009 1:37 AM | Reply | Permalink
It is a scary thought these PUGS.
Every time I see Obey’s avatar, I can see the Pug jumping across the divide (abyss) becoming another leader of the “Ottoman” Empire.
June 4, 2009 2:02 AM | Reply | Permalink
hahaha! WE OWN THE OTTOMAN, DUDE!
June 4, 2009 7:12 AM | Reply | Permalink
This pug slamming really must stop. What's next? Whack a kitten? (and yes, that link gets uuugly...)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_udqEp_YR4
June 4, 2009 7:14 AM | Reply | Permalink
pussy pummeling?
June 4, 2009 8:45 AM | Reply | Permalink
dirty dirty
June 4, 2009 10:31 AM | Reply | Permalink
oh dear. There's nowhere safe to go with that reply, afraid.... hahaha
June 4, 2009 10:35 AM | Reply | Permalink
"Ever see a pug dog? The breed has been around a long time, created by mankind, not nature."
- WHERE THE HELL DO YOU GET THESE STORIES?!!! Do we need a rapid response unit to slap these rumors down, now?!?! Everyone knows the Pug came into being when Cosmo Dog got kinky with the primaeval Dragon Lao-Xiang Sze, otherwise known as the Big Bang. Needing a good lap to sit in, we created Man from one of our spare ribs, but lacking opposable thumbs y'all turned out butt-ugly. Our bad. sorry.
THE END!!!!!
June 4, 2009 7:07 AM | Reply | Permalink
How are you at swimming during flooding season?
When your Master (the one with the opposable thumb) notices YOU "Cosmo Dog" have been out procreating.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egScPkeNkp0
Bob (BARKER) FROM PRICE IS RIGHT
Spaying or neutering your pet means that your animal and its potential offspring won't contribute to the population of unwanted pets.
JUST YOU BETTER REMEMBER, BUDDY
www.hsus.org/pets/pet_care/why_you_should_spay_or_neuter_your_pet.html
June 4, 2009 10:19 AM | Reply | Permalink
Now, i'm all for family planning and all that, but can't you guys come up with something a bit less brain? Like a pill or something? We didn't endow y'all with encephalitis for nuttin...
June 4, 2009 10:41 AM | Reply | Permalink
see, you got me all flustered with this neutering business: replace 'brain' with 'barbaric'...
June 4, 2009 10:43 AM | Reply | Permalink
I am very thankful, because I am an insulin dependent diabetic. So thanks, Watson and Crick! Thanks Eli Lilly! Thanks, Mr. Shadblow!
(Actually, Mr. Shadblow is just a construct, loosely based on an 1857 Frank Leslie's cartoon.)
June 4, 2009 1:45 AM | Reply | Permalink
Could I get swine flu, in blue?
June 4, 2009 2:00 AM | Reply | Permalink
Only if it's from the "Andromeda Strain"
Like “THE WAR OF THE WORLD” this is not entirely REAL
The Blue color (pigmentation) blocks the UV rays. The deficiency in the synthesis of vitamin D from sunlight attacks the immune system. Becoming airborne
END OF STORY
I found two good sites that are REAL though
http://www.naturalnews.com/Vitamin_D.html
wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitamin_D
June 4, 2009 3:14 AM | Reply | Permalink
Think about milk. I mean at one time a cow must have had enough milk to take care of a couple of calves. ten thousand years later, they became milk machines.
Now I have my nightly ice cream and my toe nails glow!!
June 4, 2009 8:38 AM | Reply | Permalink
Hi, dd. Just saying, HI! :-)
June 4, 2009 8:56 AM | Reply | Permalink
Hi TheraP. Just a three page lead up to a punch line for me.
But the peeps got pretty funny along the way.hahaha
June 4, 2009 9:00 AM | Reply | Permalink
I love clever. I love smart. But, I do take exception to you usurping my Bar Mitzvah photo to represent the 2008 Republican Convention.
Great post.
June 4, 2009 11:25 AM | Reply | Permalink
That's funny, I mean you do not looook bluish.
June 4, 2009 11:33 AM | Reply | Permalink
Born of genetically engineered, glowing parents, the baby monkeys came by their fluorescence "naturally"--the first time artificially introduced genes have been passed from parent to offspring in primates. The advance may raise the specter of genetically engineered lines of other primates, such as humans.PB, Bristol
June 10, 2010 5:27 AM | Reply | Permalink