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WorldWeird: Fluorescent cat cloned

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  1.  (271.1)
    Scientists in Korea's Gyeongsang National University have cloned cats, modifying a gene to change their skin colour and making them glow a reddish colour under ultraviolet light:

    http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/biz/2007/12/123_15447.html

    They claim the research will be used to help treat genetic diseases and reproduce animals on the verge of extinction. We know the truth: they want to use cats as flashlights.
    • CommentAuthorMadeley
    • CommentTimeDec 12th 2007
     (271.2)
    Or take them clubbing.
  3.  (271.3)
    Or contrive some sort of cat lava-lamp by suspending them in a glass jar with bungee cords.
    • CommentAuthorKosmopolit
    • CommentTimeDec 12th 2007
     (271.4)
    ....they want to use cats as flashlights.

    ... Or take them clubbing.

    How about we use them as clubs?

    It's what I feel like doing when my ex-housemate's cat that she dumped on us decides he needs to be fed at 3 AM.
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      CommentAuthorScribe
    • CommentTimeDec 12th 2007
     (271.5)
    Actually they are going to create a game show around the cat, and once they get their mileage out of that they're going to create a reality show.
  6.  (271.6)
    Damn, the Koreans are ahead of us in the glowing animal race!

    We Americans have no choice but to start making something bigger start glowing strange colors!

    Do I smell genetically modifying bears so they'll glow happy colors when they bust into our homes to eat us?
    • CommentAuthorMadeley
    • CommentTimeDec 12th 2007
     (271.7)
    Unfortunately not. They will be engineered to be scent-neutral.
    • CommentAuthorThe Skoot
    • CommentTimeDec 12th 2007
     (271.8)
    "Aaaaggh, bears, mauling and eating me! Trippy light show though. Oooo."
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      CommentAuthormuse hick
    • CommentTimeDec 12th 2007
     (271.9)
    an allergen free cat would be really great
    • CommentAuthorharchangel
    • CommentTimeDec 12th 2007
     (271.10)
    Giant glowing bears would be great for airport runways. then the cats can be used by those flag men on the battleships.

    Top Gun would have been so much better if the flaggers had glowing cats.
  11.  (271.11)
    One year out at Burning Man, some guy set up an air cannon, into which he'd load several handfuls of fluorescent glowsticks, and he'd shoot it off over the heads of the raver kids dancing out on the playa, to great acclaim and excitement.

    I mention this only because it was the first image that came to mind after hearing about this Major Breakthrough in Kitty Science....

    So long as cats don't develop thumbs, go ahead and mutate them all you like, I say....
  12.  (271.12)
    I'm having a time out until I can learn some manners.
    I wish i could buy one and freeze it, then melt it in the summer time and use it.


    or i could just imangine my evil evil black cat glowing red in the dark.....
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      CommentAuthorwesunruh
    • CommentTimeDec 15th 2007
     (271.13)
    first thought: where's the lolcat for this?

    between glowing cats and unafeared mice, science has gotten pretty wacky this week
  14.  (271.14)
    Wow, I think that unafraid mouse needs its own thread. That's a pretty philosophically important step in genetics.
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      CommentAuthorSara 013
    • CommentTimeDec 15th 2007
     (271.15)
    If the cats were phosphorescent instead, I'd be really impressed.
    As it is, I remain skeptical....

    Unafeared mice = fat predators.
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      CommentAuthorAlan Tyson
    • CommentTimeDec 15th 2007
     (271.16)
    From the Unafraid Mouse article:

    "Scientists at Tokyo University say they were able to successfully switch off a mouse's instinct to cower at the smell or presence of cats — showing that fear is genetically hardwired and not learned through experience, as commonly believed."

    I don't think that disproves learned fear - most of us don't instinctively fear our parents, but I bet a kid who was abused and beaten by a parent would be pretty fucking scared. I bet if you took these mice and put them in a cage with a cat that hadn't been trained not to pounce on them (how they did THAT is a far more fascinating question, in my opinion), and one of their mousy number was eviscerated before their eyes, they would learn to fear cats, or at least that particular cat.

    Which isn't to say the pictures of the mouse and kitten cuddling aren't ridiculously adorable.

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