Glow in the dark kitteh - buy one for your kid and they won't need a night light any more! Image: Mayo Clinic
It’s GFP cats – new genetically modified cats that express green fluorescent protein and glow under fluorescent light of the right wavelength. I’m really just posting this because it’s a pic of a cute glowing kitten, so if you want an explanation and all that sciencey stuff there’s a Guardian story about it, or read the paper in Nature Methods - like I said I’m quickly posting this for the pic not for the science so I haven’t checked if I can get the full text paper. tut tut.
(Although I did find the Mayo Clinic media release – I can’t believe they just put in that one nauseating quote about helping cats and humans and expected journos to use it – I’m not surprised the Guardian got fresh quotes!)
<update: Discover magazine has more pics >
Antiviral restriction factor transgenesis in the domestic cat
Pimprapar Wongsrikeao, Dyana Saenz, Tommy Rinkoski, Takeshige Otoi & Eric Poeschla
Nature Methods (2011) doi:10.1038/nmeth.1703 Published online 11 September 2011
mymatejoechip
17/09/2011
And now there are plans to introduce insect genes into sheep to improve their breeding and meat production. This is all running ahead of itself.