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Scientists Create Sheep That Are 15 Percent Human
Posted by
ScuttleMonkey
on Mon Mar 26, 2007 05:11 PM
from the dollie-partof dept.
from the dollie-partof dept.
anthemaniac writes "Professor Esmail Zanjani and colleagues at the University of Nevada-Reno have created sheep that are 15 percent human at the cellular level. Half the organs in the sheep are human. The idea, of course, is to harvest those organs to transplant into human patients. From the article: 'He has already created a sheep liver which has a large proportion of human cells and eventually hopes to precisely match a sheep to a transplant patient, using their own stem cells to create their own flock of sheep.' One scientists worries, however, that the work could lead to new viruses that cross from animals to humans."
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This worries me (Score:5, Funny)
I'm more worried ... (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:This worries me (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:This worries me (Score:5, Funny)
it is admittedly disproportionate representation, since the true believers are still checking the Bible to figure out which of the Internets to sign up for.
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Re:This worries me (Score:5, Interesting)
And it's true. Mostly, atheists are talking to each other when making logical arguments against religion - mostly to provide each of us with "make the proseltyzer feel stupid so he'll leave me alone" ammo.
Most of us realize that you'll drop the imaginary friend in your own time, or maybe you won't; either way, nothing we say will change it. For that segment of us, it's to create a bullet-proof anti-preacher sheild. What fun is it, for example, to be told you're going to hell if you don't have a good argument as to why hell probably doesn't exist?
That said, the majority of us aren't really looking for an argument. We know arguments happen; we're quite outnumbered in the world, and it's very hard to keep the fact that you don't actually believe in God to yourself. You know. It comes up - and nine times out of ten, when it does, you end up getting the third degree by someone who was satisfied with 'Because God made it that way' for their whole lives or the 'flavor of the month' theist who is newly converted and wants to share (read: force) her new insights with you. Initially, argument prep is self-defence, though it often migrates to preemptive defense and outright flaming.
We should be more mature than that, and in fact, most of us are. It's just that, like any group, you get the teenagers and the adults who never left high school who are so damned sure of themselves that they can't be bothered to respect the choices of others.
I try to reprimand my fellow atheists occasionally when they step out of line; responses to insane proseltyzing that includes threats of damnation don't get rebuffed, but once in a while you'll get the genuinely curious question about atheism and the vitrolic atheist auto-reponse - and I'll shoot that down every time.
I can't moderate all the 'fuck God!' posts. I'd go crazy. But I just want to let you know that most of us aren't actually like that. We're good, normal people who just happen to not believe in a deity or deities.
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Sweet! (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Sweet! (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Sweet! (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Sweet! (Score:5, Interesting)
They feed chickens to cows, cows to chickens, fish to both, and GM corn with antibiotics to the chickens in the first place. The food chain looks like a fractal, not a line with humans at the top.
This won't fuck up the food chain any more than we already have.
And if I was dying (at a faster rate than the default) then I'd try out any new thing that could give me hope or maybe help out some other folks after me. So what if I have a sheep's liver, a robotic heart, and an embedded neural stabilizer?
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Science and Sensationalism... (Score:5, Interesting)
How to flirt with the sheeple (Score:5, Funny)
Just 15%? What do you say we make it 20?
Re:How to flirt with the sheeple (Score:5, Funny)
Just 15%? What do you say we make it 15.2% ?
Fixed that for you...
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Sheep-Human disease transfer? (Score:5, Interesting)
I believe there's already been at least one fictional book on this topic already. Ah, here it is. [scottsigler.net]
Ryan Fenton
At what percentage.. (Score:5, Funny)
This is a good idea, BUT . . . (Score:5, Insightful)
Or would the left wing animal rights naked PETA supporters be pissed off that you're raising innocent animals for the sole purpose of slaughtering and harvesting them for their organs,...
On the bright side, we might have actually found an issue that both the left and right wingers actually agree on!
brings new meaning to (Score:5, Funny)
THE most important question related to this topic! (Score:5, Funny)
And don't go looking at me like it hasn't crossed any of your minds!
No probaalem. (Score:5, Funny)
If the far pro-lifers can be taken at their word.. (Score:5, Insightful)
Boy is this one going to piss them of no end...
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Re:!5%.... (Score:5, Insightful)
These sheep are not 15% human, there is no such thing - they're 15% antigenically identical. There is no percentage at which they will become human, because their basic structure is still of a sheep!
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Yes, 15% (Score:5, Insightful)
These are not hybrids or the result of genetic engineering. They are chimeras: Organisms composed of two separate clone of cells. Some of the cells are 100% human, some are 100% sheep. The total animal has 15% of its cells being 100% human (surface antigens and all), not 100% of its cells having 15% human traits. (The immune system matured in the presence of both so it doesn't attack either.)
The cells are in coherent lumps, too. Entire organs - including the brain - may be 100% human tissue. (Though they may be morphologically similar to the sheep equivalent because they were exposed mainly to sheep growth factors while forming.)
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Re:Now all we need... (Score:4, Funny)
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Re:Human arrogance towards life and God (Score:4, Insightful)
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The Bible XOR Vegetarianism/Veganism (Score:5, Interesting)
"And saw heaven opened, and a certain vessel descending unto him, as it had been a great sheet knit at the four corners, and let down to the earth: Wherein were all manner of fourfooted beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air. A nd there came a voice to him ``Rise, Peter, kill and eat''." - Acts 10:11-13 [blueletterbible.org]
"Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils: Speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their conscience seared with a hot iron, Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth." - 1 Tim 4:1-3 [blueletterbible.org]
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Re:Don't give them brains... (Score:5, Funny)
I'm getting really ticked off at the whole "Baa means no!" crowd.
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