Scientists Create a Mouse That Fears No Cats

Ramblings

Not sure what the benefit is of a mouse not fearing a cat, I would guess that that type of fearlessness would lead to a lot of mouse deaths. But, here’s the stuff:

A team of University of Tokyo researchers led by professors Hitoshi Sakano and Ko Kobayakawa have announced they have genetically engineered a mouse that does not fear cats, simply by controlling its sense of smell. By tweaking genes to disable certain functions of the olfactory bulb — the area of the brain that receives information about smells directly from olfactory receptors in the nose — the researchers were able to create a “fearless” mouse that does not try to flee when it smells cats, foxes and other predators.

Read the rest here.

Share it if you like it!
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Reddit
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Fark
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Propeller
  • StumbleUpon
  • Technorati

Leave a Comment

XHTML: You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>