This has to bee the coolest thing ever: a cloned pig has had its genes altered to make it glow fluorescently green! And the fun doesn’t stop there – the manipulated pig has also bred piglets that also glow in the dark. In other words, the specialized genes have been transferred to the next generation without any external intervention.

Robin Lovell-Badge, a genetics expert at Britain’s National Institute for Medical Research, thinks that this technology could potentially be very valuable for growing organs for transplants. Personally I couldn’t care less about that: I’m just waiting for the day we get glowing pork chops! Think of the fun!

Speaking of genetic manipulation I’ll have to mention my new game project, with the working title Wildhollow: in the game you’ll get to combine mad scientist desires with cute fluffy animals. The design isn’t done yet, but the current vision is that you’ve inherited a farm and your task is to bring the farm around from near-bancrupcy. How? By breeding animals; and in particular, by cross-breeding animals and applying mutagens to create new types of beasts!

Of course… The game won’t mention either the word genetics or mutation. It’ll all be covered up by politically correct terms like “breed your animals and discover strange new creatures.”

Stay tuned for more information next month; first I have to complete Spandex Force!

This entry was posted on Friday, January 11th, 2008 at 1:49 pm and is filed under Science, Wildhollow. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.