Saturday, March 30, 2013

Engineering Animals?


Cyborg bugs and glow-in-the-dark cats: How we're engineering animals



          Engineering animals. Well it's happened before. But have you ever seen this? A cat named Mr.Green Genes who glows in the dark under an ultraviolet light and in light, a normal kitten. Also, what is known as a "GloFish", who glows just like Mr.Green Genes. It's really just a zebra fish who has been genetically engineered to contain a fluorescent protein gene. Which is also what is in Mr.Green Genes, that fluorescent protein gene. But the glowing protein isn't the only thing we've engineered animals with. Plus,this doesn't harm the animals. Its just as if they were born with it. Winter the bottlenose dolphin was also helped or engineered by us when she lost her tail in a crab trap line. So, with Winter without a tail, we made her a prosthetic tail to help her swim just like she would have with a real one like she had. Listen to this. Science journalist Emily Anthes has also discovered a way to engineer animals without the things found in the animals that make peoples allergies act up. I think that this article is important because we are discovering new and very improved ways of living with animals. Also it could be a better way of living, without harming animals.

The genetically modified <a href='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyKt7Rr5Y88' target='_blank'>Mr. Green Genes</a> looks like an everyday kitten when the lights are on ...
Before
... But when the lights are out, the cat glows under an ultraviolet light thanks to a fluorescence gene in his cells.
After
For more info, click here

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