Dec 17 2007It's About Freaking Time: Glowing Cats

Sweet. Finally I can make glowing sesame chicken!!!

this is so creepy...

Is it just me or does this seem marginally inhumane...?

I want a green one!

This is kind of sick. What is with people fucking with the natural occuring genetic makeup of animals.

Sure it's not big now, but if this kind of stuff continues then im sure this shit is totally going to back fire sometime in the future.

I don't look forward to these advancements at all. In fact its fucking scary. Just imagine what kinds of things they are doing that are not released to the public.

Matt

Hmm. I think it's alright. They just gave the mom a different gene. I don't think any harm came to the kitties.

Somehow one of these are going to get out, and years from now you'll be able to visit the zoo at night -- glow in the dark animals abound.

^^^^^^^
tmhs - yea cause you are a scientist and "you think its alright" so of course no harm can come from it.

Idiot.

50 years ago their was also no harm in smoking and eating mcdonalds. Now look where we are at, people dieing left and right from cancer and heart disease.

To the people who say there is no harm, who are we to say that. And to the ones who say it's hurting the cats, How the hell do they know? People complain to much...Nobody wants to hear your complaints. Please shut up. Grow up . And so your research!

Whoa! I said "so your research" instead of "do your research" . Quick ! call me out on it!!! I've never had an error like this before. I' m so uneducated!!!!

#3: That would make sense, seeing how they're not human.

Er, scratch out the last comment, I read it as "Inhuman."

Anywho, that's actually pretty interesting.
The only thing I question is the "exposure to UV light" part...
Last I checked, that stuff was pretty damaging.

the best post rant EVER.

Will this hurt their chances of catching prey since it can see them coming from a mile away? Or getting away from predators? Kind of hard to be sneaky when you are GLOWING

It'd be hard for them to mark their territory in my yard too. Thank goodness.

Heh...Ok bare with me on this one...(I'm taking the "joking" stance, not the "let's get serious and rant" stance)... So you get these cats, you somehow preserve them (like they do for the Bodies exhibits), and then you make lamps! Or somehow evolve the idea, maybe Christmas decorations on a giant tree or something...hah.

Now for the serious...is it hurting the cats or not? I don't know, and neither do you. If it's clearly inhumane, then don't do it, now if they don't know/care then why the hell not? Now there's different types of UV light, there's the sun's which is a LOT, then there's blacklight type, which is bareable (otherwise Disney wouldn't have it on their rides, etc.) . Predators? Unless cat-prey is going to start going around with blacklights, I doubt it'll affect their hunting capacities.

Heck, maybe they just took that glowing paint that has a twelve year lifespan and sprayed it on lightly on them...who knows.

Coming up next, glowing midgets!

UV lights can sunburn humans.. but cats i guess, don't really have that problem.

and UV lights are almost the same as just black lights right?
so ... anything white would glow.. and certain fluids. a white kitten would glow under a UV light without any genetic alteration.

so was anything really accomplished?

That is really sick.

The only thing about this that strikes me as inhumane is that, were the cats released into the wild (which is obviously unlikely), they would have a difficult time catching any prey at night, and would be more susceptible to being attacked by other animals. However, as domestic pets, they might be safer from being hit by cars (and easier to find!), so it seems to go both ways. Pretty damn weird, though.

To # 17 - No, UV (ultraviolet) light is what composes sunlight.

I like the way you went from "burns humans" (which is correct, UV rays cause our sunburns) to "same as black lights"....when was the last time a black light caused a sunburn?! Black lights have nothing to do with UV rays.

Ok I have to join in

*Random completely scientific comment*

*Inhumane comment*

*comment about not caring*

*comment stating everyone is an idiot*

Done!

Even someone who thinks this is inhumane could at least find it interesting. I do, and I still think it's not good.

It's only a matter of time until they start manipulating humans and we have Brave New World. Of course, that's not in my lifetime.

#21, you forgot *comment not remotely related to post*

Ooo I've never been called an idiot on a message board before.

Before I begin to try to explain what I said, I have to remember that I don't care and that I'm probablly better looking than all of you anyway. THAT MEANS I WIN!

^^^^ Bravo!

As for my comment (#3), I just mean to say I probably wouldn't buy one. After all, there's plenty of cats in shelters that need a good home and cost hundreds less than designer pets. Maybe if they were hypoallergenic too...

There's a few dumb fucks in this comment section. Blacklights are UV, these cats glow under blacklight which is a different spectrum than the UV that burns us in the sun and much lower power. These cats don't glow in the dark unless there's a UV lamp (blacklight) nearby so would have no problem in the wild.

Shit, I left school when I was 14 and know this stuff. What education are tax payers paying for?

It's not a totally horrible idea. Like the other day, I went to my local hang and got like really smashed, right? Anyway the lights were out and my old lady went to sleep. There I am fumbling for the keys since the pants were around my ankles, I open the door, And I can't find the lightswitch. But there's that glow in the dark cat, so even though I'm hammered, I won't trip over it and wack my head. Not that I would notice because I'm so wasted!

Progress!!!

#25: Apparently not the education acquainted to your tastes.

You ever step on your girlfriends cat in the dark, get your leg savaged and, after she's done yelling at you for hurting her schnookum-wookums, realized your not going to get the wake-up blowjob?

Nevermore!

Thank you S. Korean scientists. This is why we fought the dirty commies.

Sigh, your not going to = you're not going to.

These little buggers are going to be astounding in horror films.

guys i'm pretty sure this isn't real....it doesn't even move like a cat, look at it compared to the other one when that light is on

I seem to fail understanding how glowing cats could possibly help the human race survive and evolve.

...

D:

However, I do wonder... what exactly happened/happens when they fuck up that gene? The cat becomes some kind of walking sun lamp?

@blpressure, the education system around the world is fucked up. Most kids don't pay the fuck attention until college because they don't think they're paying for it... Eh, fucking taxes don't pay for shit other than lining the politicians' pockets.

are you people retarded? they are like those little glow in the dark lizards you had as a kid. as long as they are exposed to light before it's dark, THEY GLOW. bwahaha.

i am so psyched about this and yet oddly afraid i'll turn out the lights and begin to glow.

Here's how it works: The scientists altered a cat's DNA to include coding which causes the cat to create a protein that it wouldn't otherwise. This is a harmless protein, but when exposed to UV light, it glows. The cats do not glow at night, they only glow if exposed to UV light! FYI: the protein is called green fluorescent protein. Look it up.

This is used in science because it allows scientists to see which cats (or cells, lab mice, etc) they have genetically altered. For example: suppose you are researching alzheimer's disease. You want to alter the DNA of a mouse so that it creates plaques that are involved in alzheimer's disease (i.e. you want to force your test mice to have alzheimer's). How do you know that you've done this successfully? Easy. You also include a gene that makes the mice create the glowing protein along with the alzheimer's gene. Thus, any mice pups that glow will also have the alzheimer's gene. Its very useful.

So before you all think that scientists are doing something evil, remember that scientists are trying to help people. Do you think we make money off selling glowing cats? No effing way. People bitch about diseases like cancer, but then bitch about experimenting on animals. This is the only way to research these diseases so get over it.

This case is particularly significant because now scientists can make these gene alterations on larger animals than mice or cells. Naturally larger animals are more like humans, and this improves research a lot.

Matt- Stop your whining and go eat a cheeseburger!

Good one Duane.

Go fuck yourself.

Matt

Agreed with Plt.

that is sick!! what is the purpose of a glowing cat ?!?!? Just another way the human race is fuckin around with nature......your scientists ...not god......