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Science

Scientists Engineer Chicken With Leg for a Wing 115

Posted by CmdrTaco from the science-for-fun-and-profit dept.
Ry Jones writes "The brits have found a way to maximize the best part of a chicken. " The scary thing is that I suspect this is going to get a lot wierder...
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Scientists Engineer Chicken With Leg for a Wing More

Scientists Engineer Chicken With Leg for a Wing

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  • Good ol' South Park. Bravely beyond the absurd into the completely dada :)
    If anybody ever _does_ splice swiss cheese with chalk and a beard, please please don't tell me ;)
  • Posted by AnnoyingMouseCoward:

    Unlikely. Flight depends on a lot of other things.

    For a start, pigs have solid bones and birds have hollow bones, so you would have to change the pigs bone structure first.

    Pigs use fat for insulation ( which makes them heavy ), while birds use feathers. So you would have to engineer the pig to have feathers and a much lower fat content.

    Then thers the problem of the nervous system. You would have to re-wire the pigs nervous system and remove the front legs so that those neural pathways could be used for wing control.

    So nope, pigs won't fly. By the time you re-engineered the pig so that it could fly, it wouldn't be a pig any more. It would have become a bird and wouldn't look much like a pig at all.

    Just my 2 pork chops worth.
  • With questions about nerve bandwidth hitting ask slashdot, medical dramas hitting the box office, top rated medical shows taking over prime time, now is a good time to back off from the star studded, super competitive, glamourfest world of biology and become a geek.
  • I'm just trying to get them approved by the FDA...
  • Pigs have four legs "protruding".

  • Christ! look at that picture!
    That does it!
    I've gone vegetarian!
    t_t_b
    (Remember: even chickens were birds, once..)
    --
  • That's ok.. because you're Yehat now...
    Until i replied...
    Now you're an anonymous coward

    Don't blame us 'brits' for that monstrosity
    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 14, @04:22
    (User Info) http://
  • Apparently they changed their name from Kentucky Fried Chicken to KFC, because they use genetically engineered birds which are legally not "chickens" anymore.
  • I've got the impression that US government doesn't care about the people too, but seriously do you think EU does???

    The whole point with that damn union is to make something big and powerful and get rid of that disturbing democrazy thing. Mighty people in Europe haven't ruled the world for *years* and how fun is it to play Civilization Live(tm) without a big empire? (And we all know how annoying it is to get voted down when you try to start a fun little war.)

  • I wanna get off!

    This is getting too weird...

    8-|
  • Some years ago, when trying to explain the future of bioengeneering to a friend I made the joke that bioengineers may ultimately try to produce a chicken that when shouted at died immediatly of heart attack, looses all feathers and resolves into a couple of chicken nuggets.

    When faced with the real image in the featured article, I must say the joke is not so funny anymore.

    Albeit todays domestic animals were shaped by man too, such deep meddling with evolution goes far too far for my taste.
  • > I've gone vegetarian!

    I did already. But what good is it, if you as customer, can't decide if there is anything genetically tempered with in your food?

    Of course the food industry is not stupid, they know that when they are forced to put a "gen soja" or "gen corn" on their packaging, many won't buy it. So they work against proper labeling.

  • > i can see an onslaught of "god didn't intend
    > for chickens to have three legs" bible-thumpers
    > coming from their corners to protest this one.

    In my case you can leave out religous arguments, but indeed my feeling is that this is not a good thing to do.

    Of course, if man does take chicken evolution this way, it is as "natural" as influencing this evolution by traditional selection and breeding. We are a part of nature so it is natural.

    But do the scientists right now really understand what they do? I don't think so. It seems like take this gene here and put it there, lets switch some sequences here and there and lets see what will happen. Trial and error mostly.

    To be honnest I cannot say what will happen in the future, maybe the biological systems are so fault tolerant, that it will indeed lead only to chicken with more tasty bits, but I would be not surprised at all, if it will have side effects of the strangest, well even deadliest kinds.
    We don't know right now.

  • Imagine the possibilities what you can get from an egg. Instead of the whole chicken from an egg, only a little drumstick is hatched. Wow.
  • I have some bad news for you ... most of the potato crops now in production use seed (eye) stock that comes from Monsanto who has engineered a pesticide right into the spuds that kills the most voracious form of potato beetle.



    Then there's the whole push (again by Monsanto) to get 3rd world farmers to ditch native species in favour of ones wit the "terminator gene complex" which allows only one genration of crop (the sees of that crop are sterile).



    Oh, yeah... it seems that the terminator gene can be transferred via pollen to non-terminator stock and apparently to other related specied too.



    scared yet..?


    _DHMS

  • I actually killed my own chickens on the farm when I was a kid. ( For food )

    I don't think I could actually touch one of these.


  • And, for the very first time, I would be on their side!

  • I suppose that is what terrorism is. isn't it?

    Of course if you don't have a huge tax supported army what else can you do?



  • The Hale Bopp Comet left already.

  • this doesn't have anything to do with the bible, or with God. If you want to eat mutated chicken, go for it, but I'd just assume eat food that hasn't been messed with.

    Genetically engineered food might one day be acceptable, but I don't want it anymore than I will eat meat or dairy products produced by hormone enhanced antibiotic abused cattle.
    Andrew Gardner
  • No crap to shovel, no hair removal, no organs to worry about.. just meat. This is definantly a PHD research work waiting to happen.

  • Imagine an all white meat chicken, mmmm.
  • You can buy "three-legged fryer" packages in stores, but I never knew they were actually grown that way. Just a stone's throw from the Boneless Chicken Ranch.

    Vegetarianly yours,
    James

  • Well if it isn't Chicken McGregg, with a leg for a wing and a wing for a leg!

  • ...and silly me always thought the best part was the WING!

    There's no way in hell I'd eat a chicken that had four legs protruding out of it. That's just gross. Imagine what a Thanksgiving turkey would look like?
    I think I'd much prefer a nice grain-fed non-genetic-mutant non-chemically-enhanced chicken.
  • I want dark. White is always too dry.

    ---
  • /* Come to think of it, I wonder why nature hasn't developed a breed of critter that's outside the food chain. Something that tastes bad to everything and breeds like a porn show. Sure it would be bad for the world, but I see nature as a random force and not an intellectual one */

    Homo Sapiens Sapiens.

  • Forget extra legs. Let's eliminate the head, the bones, most internal organs, and the inefficient, irregular shape. Yes, folks, this is the first step toward the ideal: the Vat of Meat.

    All the Vat of Meat needs is muscle, a basic circulatory and digestive system, a bit of fat, skin to hold things in (and cook up tasty), and nerves triggered from outside by computerized equipment to give the muscle some tone by making it twitch at regular intervals.

  • For real good chicken Mcnugget & hotwing prices about 2 yrs down the road. Because pure research aside, you know someone in a food lab just wet themselves over this one.


    ~Grell

    "Well, I mean, YES idealism, YES the dignity of pure research, YES the pursuit of truth in all its forms, but there comes a point I'm afraid where you begin to suspect that if there's any REAL truth, it's that the entire multi-dimensional infinity of the Universe is almost certainly being run by a bunch of maniacs. And if it comes to a choice between spending yet another 10 million years finding that out, and on the other hand just taking the money and running, then I for one could do with the exercise." -- One of the white mice in the Hitchhikers' Guide

  • Um Rob, theres something Realllly wrong w/ this post. Namely the fact I didn't write it.

    Is there some sort of problem w/ the submission scripting?

    ~Grell

    yeah Im about as British as Gerry Adams man,, :/ ?
  • Um, why is this gentleman : User Info for scheme (19778), using or being assigned My handle?

    It concerns me a little, ya know? When I click on user info it goes to scheme's page, but the user details then link to mine.

    Just thought you should know, in case this is some sort of hack.

    ~Grell
  • know where I can get a big bag of breaded chicken strips???

    All I can find is little wussy boxes that are way more expensive.
  • i can see an onslaught of "god didn't intend for chickens to have three legs" bible-thumpers coming from their corners to protest this one.
  • But do the scientists right now really understand what they do? I don't think so. It seems like take this gene here and put it there, lets switch some sequences here and there and lets see what will happen. Trial and error mostly.
    I tend to think that's how nature does it, too. Only with the human-controlled chicken environment, the chickens that are best suited to being eaten are allowed to reproduce, rather than the other way around of nature. Come to think of it, I wonder why nature hasn't developed a breed of critter that's outside the food chain. Something that tastes bad to everything and breeds like a porn show. Sure it would be bad for the world, but I see nature as a random force and not an intellectual one. But back to the original point, I don't think that nature causing mutations is better or worse than humans doing so. Nature (I believe) doesn't have a Plan for it's mutations. Most of it's experiments are horrible flops and don't even make it out of the womb, much less proceed to create a discoverable species. If mankind creates a 5-assed chicken and lets it loose into the wild, I'll just bet it will either find an embarrassing niche in nature or it won't. Most likely won't, and nature will never know the difference between this one failed mutation and the countless others before and after it.

    I don't think nature is so resilient as it is dynamic. Perhaps it will change from what you think it "ought to be" but will continue to flourish along whatever track it does. Mankind may be able to create animals better suited to the environments mankind creates (cages, apartments, workstations, etc.), but I really doubt something like a miniature pinscher would find a place in a forest of bears, ticks, and wolves (who in turn are having a hard time finding a place in man's world).

    So, mutation is simply mutation. Whether it's good or bad based on what causes it is a subjective matter.

  • Evolution through technology.
    I for one think this is great.

    I hope the technology isn't hoarded and I hope it doesn't drive poor chicken farmers in to a worse state. But I do like the technology that allows this stuff to happen.

    Eventually it means the cures for all sorts of genetic disorders, from alcholism to obeseity. And yes, it does mean that people will be able to pick which color skin/eyes/etc their kids will have. I don't care. Physical appearence does not matter. Discrimination about appearence is the problem. Hopefully racisim will end when people realize that it genetically doesn't matter. (but by that logic it would have already ended.... hmm, if physical appearence was based on a die role and not on your parents...soon it could be...) Anyway I believe that saving lives is worth it.
    (i wish there was a spell check)
    --
    Four years in jail
    No Trial, No Bail
    *** FREE KEVIN *** [kevinmitnick.com]
  • In "The Space Merchants" by Frederic Pohl and C.M. Kornbluth, food is harvested from a 15 yard diameter lump of chicken that was grown from a piece of chicken heart. The thing is called "Chicken Little", it is pumped full of nutrients and "chicken steaks" are shaved from its exterior.

    The book is copyrighted 1952, so it predates genetic engineering by a few years.

    I kept on thinking of Chicken McNuggets when I read the book.

  • I'm not as annoyed at Rob as I am at those asses who use lose/loose incorrectly all the time. Sheesh.
  • Although the article was interesting I can't help but think that if we looked at the funding list kentucky fried chicken would have to be in there someplace.
  • the article says that US scientists at Harvard did this, not the brits.
  • um, yes you do.
    You have to be a British national or a Commonwealth national
    Where a 'British national' is someone from Great Britain (England,
    Scotland & Wales) or N. Ireland
  • All genes are in all cells, sure. They moved in some extra foot genes - which were active. Probably easier than activating the existing foot genes there.
  • What if Microsoft figures out how to genetically-reengineer Tux?
  • Uh, on second thought, once you had engineered a on brain, the subject would immediately cease to be an MS-Minion at all!

    I guess we'll just have to go back to adding centipede DNA to the chicken material (chicken stock?) to produce birds with 100 drumsticks!

    Of course, my personal preference is breasts, but I'd settle for a way to make them larger instead of more numerous...
  • As far as I can tell from the article, the main point of the research is to ultimately prevent deformities in human babies by learning the relationships between specific genes and development. At least, I hope that's where the research stays. I sure as hell don't want my local grocer investing in this.
  • This is research into the genes that control development. By understanding how genes control the devlopment of limbs, we can understand how deformities occur and perhaps how to prevent them.

    These "three-legged" chickens were made my manipulating the embryos. These modifications will not be passed on to the next generation. Furthermore, the third "leg" retains some wing-like features.

    No one is going to make three-legged chickens especially when each embryo needs to be individually manipulated.

    "There go the heebies, but I've still got the jeebies"
  • I once saw some old (1950's at a guess) cartoon about the wonders that science would create for us, such as crossing a chicken with a centipede to produce drumsticks by the hundreds. It seemed funny at the time...

  • ! (Score:1)

    by PanIc RidE ( 16388 )
    BEWARE OF THE MONKEY!!!

    ===============================
  • I would prefer some dark meat too. Variety and all that, right?

    Imagine the freaky chicken with 4 legs that walks around like a dog?

    AS
  • Nothing paranoid about this - the Potato famine in
    Ireland was caused by the fact that all potato plants in Europe in the last century were bred from two plants brought over centuries before.

    And so, when the blight caught - It caught big time
  • It'd be a lot fairer than the Fiasco that was the Holyfield-Lewis bout last night. :-)
  • Although it is a BBC article, it says that it was done by US scientists.
  • chicken or the leg?
  • Ever see the 6legged turkey John has on thanksgiving:)
    I think they should go for 4 wings.
  • Now tell me how long until some sick SOB engineers a woman with four breasts in front and two in back?

    Hunh? Tell me!

    And how long until they start engineering men to have penises that actually are from horses?

    Hunh? Tell me!

    Especially now that they really have done penis transplants!

    And if you think I'm sick for thinking this stuff up, well, you've got to wonder where the ideas came from in the first place.

    Doomed, ladies and gentlemen.

    We are all doomed. ;)


    If what I said is nonsense,
    I'm making a point with it.
    If what I said makes perfect sense,
    you obviously missed the point.
  • I bet the extra claws would come in handy in a cockfight! A four-assed chicken couldn't be too far BEHIND!
  • The article says that this is about seeing which
    genes affect development and how limbs get their
    identities during development. It has nothing
    to do with getting a better chicken for food.
    If you look at the picture, its a zygote that's
    in the picture not a hatched chick. The mutation
    probably is a zygotic lethal anyway and not a viable embyro. This type of research has been
    going on for a while(10+ years) so its nothing
    really new.
  • Biologists have been learning about how growth works by transplanting parts of chicken embryos for a long time.

    I was referring to the selective activation of
    genes using a viral vector. I realize that you
    can probably get similar effects by carefully
    grafting groups of cells onto a growing embyros
    but I believe that the genetic activation and deactivation of genes didn't come into widespread use until the early 80s. I believe genes like
    kruppel, hedgehog, sonic hedgehog, etc. were not
    identified until after studies of the zygotic lethals in drosophila embyros in the early and mid 80s.
  • Can we now turn legs into wings. And if so. Does this mean that pigs can now fly?

    -?-
  • Um... I thought the big problems with mad cow disease were in England, not the US... but I may be wrong.

  • Try typing really fast to either e-mail or post and lot of the time you just don't notice that you spealt someting wrong, nor do you really give a shit. Those who read it know what you're talking about.

    - Dan
  • i think you have absolutly no respect for that man.
    he's showing his best to bring us every minute
    of the day the newest and the best news, and
    you complain about these little things ?

    -- hacketti
  • Trust people to mess up something natural. I like a mix of dark and white meat.

    I can just imagine going to the supermarket and having to choose from a zillion different genetically bred chickens.

    Make mine a low cal, high fibre, caffinated drum stick !!!!

  • >Doomed, ladies and gentlemen. > >We are all doomed. ;) Thanx for reminding me.. I havn't played doom in a couple of years need to pull it off the old shelf. Or fto site.. you know same difference
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • His DNA is under GPL, of course. No proprietary "extensions" for our favourite penguin's source code!

    Now if only we could say the same for the human genome... :(

  • I'm not scared because of the fact that the spuds are genetically engineered, I'm scared because of the fact that that means that only one strain of potato is in production. As soon as the insects/diseases/fungi/whatever become tolerant to the genetic alterations, that years potato harvest is gone. And if the market can't adapt fast enough to provide enough seeds(or whatever potatoes use) for the next year, then, oh well.

    I guess I'm just paranoid.
  • Reeks of south park's Mephisto and his genetic balls ups...
  • Doesn't anyone read the papers anymore?
    This story is old news that was getting coverage in the Boston area in the middle of last week,
    I am surprised that nobody here is commenting upon that.
    red_shift
  • Which came first the chicken wing or the leg.

    hehe

    B
  • They'll burn in the indiscriminate cespool of hell for these atrocities against nature! On the other hand, I could get a lot more done with another pair of arms...

    5KLOCpm, world racketball champion, cameos in mortal kombat skits...

    d
  • ???
    Schwegmann dont got em?

    Sams maybe.

    d
  • Unlike your Amarican mush, the BBC actually reports global news!. While I hate to point it out (because the UK is traditionally the home of the mad scientist ;) ), this work was done in the US!!

    D.

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