Has Anyone Seen My Rabbit? 92
New submitter writes "Scientists at the university of Hawaii have created glow in the dark rabbits. Where can I get my hands on one of these critters? It would drive the cats nuts! These guys are missing a bet, they could sell these things for big bucks and use the money to further fund their research. This is the perfect gift for the geek who has "everything"."
The technique used is similar to the glow in the dark cats bred a couple of years ago. The fluorescence isn't the end goal of course; it just happens to be a very obvious marker that their genetic manipulation technique works. According to the researchers, "the final goal is to develop animals that act as barrier reactives to produce beneficial molecules in their milk that can be cheaply extracted, especially in countries that can not afford big pharma plants that make drugs, that usually cost $1bn to build, and be able to produce their own protein-based medication in animals."
And this solves the problem how? (Score:5, Insightful)
The drugs are expensive because of the patents on them that allow big pharma to monopolize them. In this case, the people who develop the genes will then be poached by big pharma, or will form their own company, or the university will sell the patents to an IP shop, which will leave us exactly where we were before. But we will have glowing rabbits.
So spare me the homilies about poor people and drugs, and just say "shiny glowing rabbits!!! FTW!!!"
Re:Really, rabbits for milk? (Score:5, Insightful)
At a guess, it's that rabbits make good experimental subjects when you want to work on mammals larger than mice and rats, because they're famous for breeding like ... um ... rabbits.
Re:Really, rabbits for milk? (Score:5, Insightful)
Why rabbits?
How many dairy cows could you fit into the same space?
Makes sense to experiment on the rabbits first. You'll need a small ranch to start experimenting on cows.
Re:Hmmm... could this be a solution...? (Score:4, Insightful)
Until owls start carrying UV flashlights, the fluorescent rabbits are probably safe.
If birds of prey start using electronics, we may have bigger problems on our hands.