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Biotech Science

Cloned, Glow in the Dark Cats 222

eldavojohn writes "Well, you can finally get genetically modified cloned animals. South Korean scientists have shown it is possible to alter a protein via therapeutic cloning to 'artificially [create] animals with human illnesses linked to genetic causes.' The images of these animals are amazing. This research was headed by Kong Il-keun, the first person in the country to clone cats in 2004." There is always the chance that this is a hoax, but far too amusing to ignore.
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Cloned, Glow in the Dark Cats

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  • I HAZ (Score:5, Funny)

    by Arthur B. ( 806360 ) on Wednesday December 12, 2007 @04:13PM (#21675647)
    A COLOR !
  • oblig. (Score:5, Funny)

    by Rob T Firefly ( 844560 ) on Wednesday December 12, 2007 @04:14PM (#21675653) Homepage Journal
    I can has bioluminescence?
    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by ByOhTek ( 1181381 )
      That made me think of a Eureka quote that made me want to do violent things to their writers...

      "Not just fireflies, bioluminescent fireflies!"

      Which then made me think "bioluminescent glowing cats!"

      *sigh* my head hurts.
      • Just the one? (Score:3, Insightful)

        by zippthorne ( 748122 )
        Just try and watch that show and find a single line that doesn't make you cringe. Go on, I dare you.
        • Y'all realize it's all a joke, right?

          -roy
          • It's all fun and games until someone goes crazy from the terrible writing. Scifi's been doing really poorly lately. They've got a show on right now where men can fly by sticking out their arms and wearing a poorly-tailored leather duster.
            • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

              by ByOhTek ( 1181381 )
              There's a difference between suspension of disbelief (if you are referencing Heros - something that could be explained by being understanding of our current science), not-supposed to be technical (if you are referencing Dresden files - face it, that's magic), redundancy by trying to sound like you know something you don't (the Eureka quote), and campy plots (most scifi)

              The first two are fine in fiction/science fiction - if you don't like them, I'd avoid watching shows with faster than light travel, and stuf
              • by Mercano ( 826132 )
                I'm guessing the GP was talking about Flash Gordon, which probably pushes this into category four, campy.
    • Re:oblig. (Score:4, Funny)

      by mseidl ( 828824 ) * on Wednesday December 12, 2007 @06:14PM (#21677353) Homepage
      Glowing cat
      Glowing cat
      What are they feeding you...
    • Well, kitties are so close they practically have "nuclear bonds", anyway...

      Now, there can be not just "Eukanuba cat food", but Nukenub cat food...
  • We have a something to fight the the glow in the dark mice [forbes.com]
  • Korea? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 12, 2007 @04:16PM (#21675691)
    Now they have food-lit dinner instead of candle lit dinner?
  • hrmmmm (Score:5, Informative)

    by BWJones ( 18351 ) * on Wednesday December 12, 2007 @04:16PM (#21675705) Homepage Journal
    Those images do not look like images representative of cloned GFP containing animals that I have seen. Rather the green cat look slike the image was taken through a green filter or filtered light and the cat on the left simply looks illuminated by a laser. Whether or not these animals truly represent transgenic fluorescent animals from these images at least leaves me suspicious...
    • by BWJones ( 18351 ) *
      Sorry, did not read carefully enough... The cat on the right *is* a normal cat imaged through a green light filter as claimed.
    • Re:hrmmmm (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Rakishi ( 759894 ) on Wednesday December 12, 2007 @04:24PM (#21675837)
      The green one is NOT glowing and it even says it's an ordinary cat that's simply reflecting the green light. I'd say RTFA but is likely a purposefully done misguiding picture for which the article writers should be kicked for.

      The red one seems to be the real deal as it only glows where it's fur doesn't block the skin. Granted it glows rather weakly but that may be simply because it's fur is not white (or doesn't appear to be) so it doesn't reflect the glow as much as say white mice would.
      • However, if it was glowing as brightly all over its skin as it appears on the nose,then the hair on the top of its head wouldn't block it all. The only place that the fur would be thick enough to block it completely would be the body imho.
        • Re:hrmmmm (Score:5, Informative)

          by Smidge204 ( 605297 ) on Wednesday December 12, 2007 @04:56PM (#21676243) Journal
          Don't forget that an external UV light is required, rather than the skin glowing all by itself. The hair blocks the UV light from getting to the skin, and any glow from what little does get through it blocked on the way out.

          =Smidge=
        • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

          by Rakishi ( 759894 )
          To add to what the other reply said, here is a picture of glowing mice:
          http://www.forbes.com/2001/07/26/0726gfp.html [forbes.com]

          Even the relatively short hair of the mice blocks out almost all of the glow.
          • Thank you very much for the link, but look at the mice eyes: they glow. The cat eyes aren't glowing, so it doesn't seem to be the same thing occurring. Also, why are the red cat's ears partly green? It just looks like a green light on the right and a narrow beamed red light on the left, perhaps on a black haired cat that would absorb the red light. This just looks like a hoax to me.
    • Re:hrmmmm (Score:5, Interesting)

      by RingDev ( 879105 ) on Wednesday December 12, 2007 @05:01PM (#21676311) Homepage Journal
      The red cat is either a rather good photoshoping, or the real deal. If the cat were being lit by an external source, the fur would reflect the light. But the fur appears to be blocking the light.

      My best guess for the picture though is that they used a UV/Low Light amplification filter. Then they pointed a UV light at the cats, and stuck some kind of obstruction between the light and the left cat. Thus the right cat and the tips of the left cat's ears appear green, while the left cat and the left side of the right cat's body appear black (save for the UV florescence off the left cat).

      The fact that it was shot with a Low Light filter, and further compressed via JPG, means that there is a lot of noise and artifacting in the picture. That much distortion could easily mask modifications. So I would say it's either the real deal, or a fake done by someone with a lot of time and experience in producing quality fakes.

      -Rick
      • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

        by HTH NE1 ( 675604 )

        The red cat is either a rather good photoshoping, or the real deal. If the cat were being lit by an external source, the fur would reflect the light. But the fur appears to be blocking the light.
        If this is real, they must try doing it with reindeer next.
  • Amazing? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Enoxice ( 993945 ) on Wednesday December 12, 2007 @04:16PM (#21675709) Journal
    You really call that image "amazing"? Hardly. Hell, give me 2 cats and 2 flashlights and I'll come up with a better image.

    Also, I'm putting my money on hoax.
    • The right cat is definetly a green-fiter+flashlight candidate, however the left cat, I don't think so. The above person mentioned laser, which could work, but I'm fairly inclined to believe the left picture is authentic; If that was from laser, it would have closed eyes, and the eye positions don't strike me as being from blind cats. Short of computer manipulation. I don't feel like looking at it enough to figure that one out.
    • They where also taking the pictures from outside the box where the cat's are kept in an attempt to tell Schrödinger to eat it.
    • Also, I'm putting my money on hoax.

      Really? I'll have a piece of that. Shall we say, evens?

    • Oh, I see a good formula here for pointless refutations that have no actual substance.

      You really call that [topic] "[previously used adjective]"? Hardly. Hell, give me [objects in topic] and I'll come up with a better [topic].
    • by DrYak ( 748999 )

      Also, I'm putting my money on hoax.

      For the simple reason that cats are hard to breed (require much more food and space than small rodents) and hard to clone (usually the higher up in the evolution tree, the harder to clone).
      That's why they aren't very popular research subject,

      Usually in research, nowadays, specially when genetic engineering is available :
      - You use mutated insects, yeast, etc. If you only wan to study some genetic stuff.
      - If you absolutely need mamals, you use mice. If no mouse has what you

  • Black light cats (Score:5, Interesting)

    by xPsi ( 851544 ) * on Wednesday December 12, 2007 @04:17PM (#21675715)

    Because of the red fluorescence protein in their skin cells, the three Turkish Angola kittens look reddish under ultraviolet light, the researchers said.
    Calling them "glow in the dark" may be overstating the case. More like black light cats. Nothing like having a 70s poster that can scratch back while listening to Dark Side of the Moon.
    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      Because of the red fluorescence protein in their skin cells, the three Turkish Angola kittens look reddish under ultraviolet light, the researchers said.
      Calling them "glow in the dark" may be overstating the case. More like black light cats. Nothing like having a 70s poster that can scratch back while listening to Dark Side of the Moon.
      Whatever first step takes us to cats who can walk through walls...
  • by 6Yankee ( 597075 ) on Wednesday December 12, 2007 @04:18PM (#21675729)
    *turns off headlights*
    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      by ca111a ( 1078961 )
      I wouldn't rush - that cat can be behind a skunk, raccoon, even a deer or a moose and those are still plain boring non-glowing type.
  • Good (Score:5, Funny)

    by Hawthorne01 ( 575586 ) on Wednesday December 12, 2007 @04:18PM (#21675735)
    Now maybe I won't trip over them as I stumble around in the dark, on my way to the bathroom in the middle of the night.

    And if we plug one into a light socket, will it glow brighter? Can I use one as a night light?
    • I don't know if the light socket would work. But my friend has a cat, and that sounds like a GREAT idea to test.

      Oh wait, his cat isn't modified. Well, I'll try it anyway.
  • Cabbit (Score:3, Funny)

    by rlp ( 11898 ) on Wednesday December 12, 2007 @04:21PM (#21675779)
    I'm waiting for the version that's part cat, part rabbit, and part spacecraft.
  • Integrated Clapper (tm) so you can turn them turn on and off without having to get up.
  • nice maladaption (Score:3, Insightful)

    by mattkime ( 8466 ) on Wednesday December 12, 2007 @04:23PM (#21675823)
    these cats won't be able to hunt mice at dance clubs or pot dens.
  • Great... we don't have enough stray animals running around. Let's clone 250 extremely deformed ones before we get 1 right.

    Actually... it's in Korea... maybe there's just trying to feed the poor?
  • by stranger_to_himself ( 1132241 ) on Wednesday December 12, 2007 @04:24PM (#21675847) Journal
    Whereas this might be the first glow in the dark cat (for which I can think of many, many uses), there have been glow in the dark mice [bbc.co.uk] for ages (although now I wonder for how much longer). Also many animal models for human genetic diseases already exist, including fruitfly with early onset Alzheimer's disease [unisci.com], and mice with Down syndrome [bbc.co.uk]. I'm sure there are tons more.
  • by Starteck81 ( 917280 ) on Wednesday December 12, 2007 @04:25PM (#21675857)
    My cat is already horrible at catching mice. I can't imagine she would catch any if she glows.

    ...come to think of it can you make the mice glow instead??!!!
  • Cat blood (Score:3, Funny)

    by hansamurai ( 907719 ) <hansamurai@gmail.com> on Wednesday December 12, 2007 @04:28PM (#21675897) Homepage Journal
    I've always read that cat blood glows in the dark, something I've always wanted to see. And even though I have two wild and rambunctious cats, I've never seen fresh blood besides that crusty stuff in their ears from excessive scratching. Cats must be incredibly resilient not even considering their ability to fall from great heights.
    • Cat blood does not glow in the dark.

      I had a cat with cancer of the ears who bled from his ears very often, and his blood never glowed.
    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by skeevy ( 926052 )

      The crusty stuff is often the feces of ear mites - you can get medicine to fix that and the scratching (also due to ear mites)

      Cats are really tough, though. My grampa used to comment how hard it was to beat them to death with a bat.

    • Re: (Score:2, Troll)

      by Sponge Bath ( 413667 )

      I've always read that cat blood glows in the dark

      You may be thinking of cat feces.
      To detect the glow you need to get a well filled litter box in a completely dark room and put your face right next to the material.

  • Next of course, artists are going to have to create cloned animals with other bizarre characteristics. Since the cut up animals they need something even more controversial. Then life will be art. Could that ever be topped?

     
    • by bhima ( 46039 )
      My GF died her cat purple years ago. He was embarrassed... I hadn't seen an embarrassed cat before.

      I'll have to get out those photos, I don't think our daughter remembers that :)
  • Obligatory lolcat [icanhascheezburger.com]

    I do better next time. Pew pew pew!

  • by alta ( 1263 ) on Wednesday December 12, 2007 @04:32PM (#21675965) Homepage Journal
    I'll take one for the wife please. Can you make it pink? She really likes pink. And one that doesn't shed, get rid of the shedding gene. And how about one that doesn't need food, doesn't poop, doesn't spray, no claws and not moody. Hmm, I just described a stuffed cat. I'll take a stuffed cat please.
    • That's why we had her modified to suit our needs....
    • by HTH NE1 ( 675604 )

      I'll take one for the wife please. Can you make it pink? She really likes pink. And one that doesn't shed, get rid of the shedding gene. And how about one that doesn't need food, doesn't poop, doesn't spray, no claws and not moody.
      One pink tribble. Anything else?
  • Ah HA (Score:5, Funny)

    by Technopaladin ( 858154 ) on Wednesday December 12, 2007 @04:34PM (#21675995)
    If we put it in a box and dont look...will it still glow?
  • by CAIMLAS ( 41445 ) on Wednesday December 12, 2007 @04:35PM (#21676001)
    This is astoundingly disturbing and irresponsible. I can't get over it, especially in light of where this took place: Asia.

    It's already profoundly simple for diseases to jump from one species to another, with either one species being a host carrier or an ill, infected carrier, and it's all the more common to happen with species which are:

    a) genetically and physiologically similar, ie. from pigs to humans, or from primates to humans (monkeypox)
    b) creatures which have regular contact, i.e. from cats to humans, deer to humans (chronic wasting disease), cattle to humans (mad cow), etc.

    And, specifically, a combination of the two: something like AIDS/HIV.

    Combining a species which has close, daily proximity with both humans and other cats, and which has the propensity to have large, expansive populations seems downright foolish. A parasite or virus from normal cats manages to get into the cloned cat (where it wouldn't infect the human, normally), mutates to the newer genes, and then migrates to the researchers. Voila, instant new disease (with potentially horrid results).

    (on a side note: anyone with kids who have been scared by cat eyes in a dark corner (my 3-year-old son would not go past the 'spare room' which is the cat's room for weeks after he saw the cat's eyes reflecting the hallway light) realize the potential for these cats as useful babysitters: kids, leave your room and the demoncat will get you!)
    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Elemenope ( 905108 )

      Toxoplasmosis, baby. The game is...already over. Our fuzzy diseased friends have been getting us sick for a long, long time. HIV made the leap unaided. Sure, playing with fire occasionally leads to crispy critters...but keep it up long enough and write down what you learn, and you eventually end up with internal combustion engines, beautiful steel blades to gut your neighbors, and beautiful vehicles that can transport men through the air. Fire, GOOD. Likewise, biomod, GOOD. Doesn't mean you shouldn't fee

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by Hatta ( 162192 )
      You have no idea what you're talking about. They inserted a single jellyfish gene under the control of a specific promoter into the cat's genome. Explain to me in detail how this is going to cause diseases to jump from cats to humans. Oh right, you can't because you have no idea what you're talking about.

      Please, there's already enough misinformed scare mongering going on in the biological sciences. If you don't know what you're talking about, STFU.
  • Please clone politicians the same way...
    So that their nose glows when they are lying.

    If it glows all the time we'll know the procedure was a success!
    • You mean, so they can read the proposals without a bedlight? Could be a solution to global warming. Unless those noses would radiate heat as well, then we'd have to add to the Kyoto protocol to eliminate all politicians by 2015.

      Now that I think about it... any chance we can get that implemented soon? Then again, I'm fairly sure all the countries that matter won't sign it anyway.
  • Great... How long before someone creates genetically modified flying fish [imdb.com] that can see in ulraviolet and they hunt down all our poor glowing kittens in a primal bloodlust! No thanks. In fact, I'd rather have a cat that emits powerful gamma ray bursts or something so it could at least take out the neighbors cat.
    • In fact, I'd rather have a cat that emits powerful gamma ray bursts or something so it could at least take out the neighbors cat.

      We'll make it 8' tall and call it Q. T. McWhiskers!

      (And wait until you see the new 16' model!)
  • We can create the animal with the loyality of a cat and the cleanliness of a dog.
  • According to the article, these cats only look that way under ultraviolet light. People often confuse FLUORESCENCE with PHOSPHORESCESCENCE. The latter is transmissive and the former is refective. From Wiki: Phosphorescence is a specific type of photoluminescence related to fluorescence. Unlike fluorescence, a phosphorescent material does not immediately re-emit the radiation it absorbs. The slower time scales of the re-emission are associated with "forbidden" energy state transitions in quantum mechanics.
  • our new flourescent kitty overlords!

    Wonder if I can have this done to my cats so I don't trip over them in the dark!
  • Does that mean I can finally get a goldfish night light?
    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      Well, a friend of mine, a Japanese scientist here at the UW, she did make a glow in the dark worm, with a biochemical switch that was fairly easy to activate, so having a glow in the dark goldfish night light isn't that difficult.

      You just have to manipulate the embryo with a tag bioluminescent marker.

      I can see a definite market for them.
  • For research only (Score:5, Informative)

    by heroine ( 1220 ) on Wednesday December 12, 2007 @05:05PM (#21676391) Homepage
    This is for research only, so U can see if a protein is expressed by attaching a UV marker to it. It also doesn't glow unless U shine UV light on it. Don't expect glowing cats in pet stores.

  • Please RTFA... (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Stoenhenge ( 767437 )

    A cloned Turkish Angola kitten, left, gives off a red fluorescence glow while an ordinary one appears to be green in this picture taken under ultraviolet light at a laboratory of Gyeongsang National University in Jinju, South Gyeongsang Province, Wednesday. The cloned cat's genes were modified with a fluorescent protein.

    Where exactly does it say "glow in the dark" ? If you're going to summarize an article, do us a favour and don't butcher the science by including your misinterpretations.

  • Until a cat is born with a freakin' laser on its head, then what's the use?
  • I can get sharks with laser beams on their heads. Then I'll be interested.

  • Flanders: "My neighbor Homer released a radioactive ape in my house"
    Bart: "It wasn't Dad's fault. The ape tricked him"
    A fluorescent ape (actually more of a baboon) later slaps Ned around in the car.
  • It is "Turkish ANGORA". This should say something about the quality of the reporting.
  • Somewhere in the universe, Bob Barker is crying.
  • Glow in the dark? (Score:3, Informative)

    by nurb432 ( 527695 ) on Wednesday December 12, 2007 @05:50PM (#21677075) Homepage Journal
    No, they are florescent according to the article. That wouldn't qualify as 'glow in the dark' since they dont make their own light.

    still cool tho.
  • Of the two cats, I particularly like the red one. Now they should do it on a raindeer. We'll call him Rudolph.
  • An experiment done by Korean scientists, it must be true!
  • ... that all cats are black at midnight!
  • Obviously, the cat is on fire.

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