At Long Last, Mice Produce Sperm From Monkeys 93
Hoon Mihn Fao writes "The BBC Reports: 'Mice have been used to produce viable monkey sperm using tissue transplanted from the testes of macaques.
The U.S. scientists involved say their work might one day help to conserve animals that are facing extinction.'"
Just think... (Score:5, Funny)
Jokes.... tooo many!! can't take it (Score:2, Funny)
Must hit submit quick!
Re:Jokes.... tooo many!! can't take it (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Jokes.... tooo many!! can't take it (Score:2)
Re:Jokes.... tooo many!! can't take it (Score:2)
Wow! Look at them go! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Wow! Look at them go! (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Could this mean.... (Score:1)
Re:Could this mean.... (Score:2)
whoa ... phew!! (Score:3, Funny)
And the understatement of the year award (Score:4, Insightful)
It might also be possible to grow human sperm in mice, although the team agree this would be a controversial move.
Just because you can, doesn't mean you should.
Re:And the understatement of the year award (Score:1)
Re:And the understatement of the year award (Score:5, Interesting)
Call me old-fashioned, but I tend to think that if it's a bad idea to be doing GE on humans then it's probably a bad idea on animals too. If it's okay on animals, it's okay on humans. After all, we're all part of the same evolutionary closed-cycle system, and if we f*ck things up for the animals around us we're f*cked too.
Also, I hate PETA as much as the next person (Unless it stands for People Eating Tasty Animals) but if we think GE is somehow cruel and horrible for humans, why exactly is it not cruel and horrible for monkeys?
Re:And the understatement of the year award (Score:5, Insightful)
The problem I primarily have is having to tell some kid that his biological father was a mouse.
Imagine the kind of brain fsck you would be handing the kid.
At least in THX1138 everybody came from the same set of jars.
Re:And the understatement of the year award (Score:1)
"Are you a man or a mouse?"
"Umm..."
Re:And the understatement of the year award (Score:2, Interesting)
But what I wonder is, why is it controversial to grow human sperm in mice, but it's not controversial to grow monkey sperm in mice?!?!?
Didn't the OP say the motivation behind the research was to protect against extinction? The means may be perceived as cruel and horrible, but if it preserves an species that would otherwise be lost, the end is not. In any case, the motivations for doing GE on humans are different than the ones they mention here. It's not like we're very close to extinction...
(Though I
Re:And the understatement of the year award (Score:1)
After all, if we are no different from animals when it comes to genetic testing, why would eating tastey people be any different? That would be a logical step from your point.
Otherwise, people and animals are different and you have to admit as such. So since we are different we can eat animals and test on animals.
Re:And the understatement of the year award (Score:1)
Furthermore, in nature as a general rule flora do not eat anything; herbivore fauna eat flora and no other fauna; and carnivore fauna eat herbivore f
Re:And the understatement of the year award (Score:1)
And just because you shouldn't, doesn't mean you won't.
History of humanity, really - poking into stuff you'd better leave alone, wondering what will happen.
I can't resist the joke here... (Score:5, Funny)
GUARD 1: It's not a question of whether it's controversial! It's a simple question of size ratios! A five-inch mouse cannot carry a one-foot human baby!
GUARD 2: Well suppose two mice carried it together
-- Monty Python and the Holy Grail (Adapted)
Simpson's obligatory (Score:2)
Troy: Get your paws off me, you dirty ape!
Chimpanzee 2: (gasp) He can talk!
Orangutans: He can talk! He can talk! He can talk! He can talk! He can talk! He can talk!
Troy: And I can siiiiiiiiiiing!
Chimp Nurse: Oooh! Help me, Dr. Zaius!
Orangutans: Dr. Zaius! Dr. Zaius!
Dr. Zaius! Dr. Zaius!
Dr. Zaius! Dr. Zaius! O, Dr. Zaius!
Orangutan 1: Dr. Zaius! Dr. Zaius!
Troy: What's wrong with me?
Dr. Zaius: I think you're crazy.
Troy: I want a second opinion.
Dr.
And to think... (Score:2, Funny)
"At long last..." (Score:5, Funny)
Wait, on second thought, please don't answer that.
Re:"At long last..." (Score:2)
Thanks Slashdot. You now owe me a keyboard. (Score:2)
Re:Thanks Slashdot. You now owe me a keyboard. (Score:4, Funny)
hmm, that would make a slashdot story..
Re:Thanks Slashdot. You now owe me a keyboard. (Score:1, Funny)
There's an easier way to get sperm "from monkeys".
Re:Thanks Slashdot. You now owe me a keyboard. (Score:1)
Re:beware! (Score:2, Funny)
Re:beware! (Score:1)
Wow... (Score:5, Funny)
Wow... somebody has VERY specific tastes....
Great story (Score:4, Funny)
Mommy , what was my Daddy like ? (Score:2)
Its So Wrong !
Next step... dolphins (Score:1)
Maybe a strain of super-human/dolphin hybrids will supplant mice at the top of the intelligence hierarchy.
Sorry, I know it's obscure, but hell, this story deserves it.
Re:Next step... dolphins (Score:1)
Disturbing (Score:5, Interesting)
Eww.
Re:Disturbing (Score:1)
Re:Disturbing (Score:1)
Re:Disturbing (Score:3, Funny)
I'm having a hard time visualising this...
Fortunatly, the hentai version will be out shortly to serve as an educational visual aid. I mean, with all those schoolgirls in there, its gotta be for educational purposes, right?
Re:Disturbing (Score:2)
...and how is this different from your average teenage boy?
/Obvious
Sperm, not semen. (Score:2)
Bringing back the Mammoth... (Score:2)
Re:Bringing back the Mammoth... (Score:5, Interesting)
That's the rub (no pun intended).
While we have a basic understanding of genetics, our understanding of embryogenesis -- how a baby organism is built from the genetic code -- is still rather limited.
We also, in most cases we don't know what a particular gene does, and given that other genes can control a gene's expression, and those genes can be controlled by yet other genes, and all the genes in the process can be influenced by the organisms internal -- hormones, etc. -- and external environment, just what a gene does is a complicated question.
But it's clear that the environment of the embryo -- which is, by and large, the embryo's mother -- has a strong influence on what's actually produced from the genetic "recipe".
Experiments cloning cats, for instance, have shown that pelt patterns and hair color are only a little influence by the gene (which makes sense if you consider that getting locked into one pattern, over many generations, makes for poor camouflage -- so not having pelt patterns under genetic control may in fact be a very successful genetic adaptation).
So while elephants are related to mammoths, it's still an open question whether injecting mammoth DNA into an elephant egg would produce anything viable, let alone anything that would survive to term and be healthy. But you're correct, it might be possible, and if it is, we could then breed successively less "elephant-contaminated" generations of mammoths.
But it's still far from trivial, and shouldn't be seen as an excuse, as some would use it, to be blase about species extinctions and dwindling species diversity occurring in the present.
Re:Bringing back the Mammoth... (Score:3, Funny)
Maybe use a pig instead of a mouse...
who's the real father? (Score:2)
So who's really the father? The boy or the mouse? The mouse is the one producing the sperm, not the boy. Oy, my head is spinning.
interesting.... (Score:2)
I don't know why he climbs like that, or the fact that he loves cheese. Sometimes I wonder where that sperm bank got their inventory!
Re:This gives me an idea (Score:1)
Re:This gives me an idea (Score:1)
Just what I always wanted. (Score:1)
I find this... really really disturbing... *shiver*
Salty Chocolate (Score:1)
Did I miss something??? (Score:2)
Will this decrease prescription costs... (Score:1)
Well, That Explains It (Score:2)
Not so hard (Score:2)
Producing sperm from monkeys is easy, you just have to massage their...erm, never mind.
Advice that has finally come of age ... (Score:1, Troll)
A true advance in science (Score:2)
Re:A true advance in science (Score:1)
Poor kids... (Score:4, Funny)
"Billy, the doctors have good news. The cancer is in remission, and you're going to make a complete recovery! And guess what else? The doctors have given you a pet immunodeficient mouse! Take good care of him Mr. Fuzzy if you ever want to have kids of your own."
Re:Poor kids... (Score:2)
oh yeah... (Score:2)
WTF are these people doing this for? Do they intend on bring back the wolly mamouth using a mouse...? first glow in the dark fish that are possibly going to be banned in californina, now this...
A South Park moment. (Score:3, Funny)
Kyle: Hey Chef.
Chef: How you doin'?
Boys: Bad.
Chef: Why bad?
Kyle: We need to genetically engineer our mouse and an monkey, but their genes won't splice.
Chef: Ahhhh, of course they won't splice children. Haven't you ever heard that song by 'Loverboy'?
Chef: Dooodnnndoodnn - A mouse and an monkey DNA just won't...A mouse-monkey. Say, now that's not a bad idea.
Kyle: I told you guys.
Chef: Imagine, a pint sized monkey that you could keep in the house. Children, we could make a fortune with this.
Kyle: You hear that dudes? We'll be rich!
Chef: Forget about all that genetic engineering whoosafudge. If you want to combine a mouse and an monkey, just get them to make sweeet love.
Cartman: Whaaat?!
Stan: I don't think an monkey would make love to a mouse.
Cartman: I don't think my mouse would want to make love to that stupid monkey.
Chef: Sure they would. But you're gonna have to get 'em in the mood.
Stan: So how do we do that?
Chef: Do what I do, get 'em goood and drunk.
Glad I got Cats at Home!!! (Score:2)
Bukake Mouse? (Score:3, Funny)
Heh (Score:1)
Where's the affiliate program (Score:2, Funny)
and
2. Makes me think twice feeding mice to my tegus now. As I feed them, I think, "That might've be the grandmother of my future kids kids kids." (well didnt look that close [male? female?] but you get the idea..)
I cant take it anymore... I'll leave it at that...
Who Ever... (Score:1)
Gives a new meaning to... (Score:2, Informative)
"Mice Produce Sperm From Monkeys" - clarification? (Score:2)
New meaning (Score:3, Funny)
Whoa! (Score:2)
I almost had a heart attack for a minute there.
endagered? (Score:1)