Animals & Creatures Created By Science
Creatures Created by Science. There are many strange animals on the planet, but not all have gone through the natural evolutionary process, many are designed by humans. Chimeras, Animals created in laboratories, editing genes from animal embryos in order to have a stronger and more resistant animal design, is part of the genetic engineering of the present. There are many terrifying, mutant hybrid animals that would exist only in science fiction. But will they only be imaginary? Let's discover together the strangest animals created by science that you won't believe exist.
12 The Common Marmoset that Glows in the Dark
This species of monkey mainly inhabits the forests of Brazil and is characterized by having two large tufts of white hair on both sides of the head. This species does not normally glow in the dark, but in 2009 Japanese scientists decided to change this.
By extracting DNA from fluorescent jellyfish and injecting them into common Marmoset embryos, they discovered that all the monkeys that were born carried this gene, so that when exposed to ultraviolet light they could glow in the dark. Can you imagine being in the woods at night and seeing several bright spots jump between the branches? That's crazy!
11 A Mouse That Shares a Cat's Cancer
Mice and cats are enemies by nature. When there is a problem with mice in a house, farm or anywhere else, the most common thing is to bring a cat to control the pest. But in 1985, a scientific study was commissioned to take this rivalry to another level. After removing cancer cells from cats with breast cancer, they were injected into a group of rodents known as "nude mice," who within a few weeks began to suffer from the same type of cancer, even though the cells were not theirs. So these mice had a part of their most dangerous predator, the cat.
10 The Duck-Turtle
What animal would you prefer to have as a pet? A duck or a turtle? And if it were possible to have both in one, would you like to have it? Well, in 2013 a group of scientists tried to make it happen, by introducing duck cells into turtle embryos and turtle cells into duck embryos. Although they expected a direct combination, a shell duck capable of swimming and diving into the water, the reality was very different.
According to the analyzes they carried out after the experiment, there were three duck cells for every 10 thousand turtles. Maybe it is not the result that we all expected, but it is a good start and the truth, it would be quite curious to have a turtle with duck DNA, do not you think?
9 Mine Detection Plants
Landmines were not created with the intention of killing people, but as a strategy designed to make the movements of the enemy in war much more predictable and deny them access to certain roads or places. But because armies don't care about removing these mines after conflict, it is estimated that about 70 people a day perish or are injured when they explode near their fields.
This is why a company and its group of scientists decided to create a plant that, by detecting one of the most important ingredients in explosives, nitrogen dioxide, changes its color from green to red, allowing people to identify and avoid mined places. Plants definitely save our lives in many ways.
8 Environmentally Friendly Pigs
In case you didn't know, pig excrement contains a lot of phosphorus, an essential chemical element for plant life. Because of this, it is very common for farmers to use it to fertilize their plants. However, when there is excess phosphorous in the soil, it can reach nearby water sources, creating algae that consume all the oxygen necessary for the fish to live.
This is why a group of scientists decided to modify the genetics of pigs in a laboratory, this with the intention that the body of these animals absorb more phosphorus, so not everything would be disposed of in their droppings. Now pigs help us with our plants without damaging water sources!
7 Transparent Gold Fish
Dissecting goldfish for laboratory experiments or anatomy classes is usually a very common practice in some countries of the world. But for animal rights groups this is an extremely cruel and unnecessary practice. This is why a group of Japanese scientists managed to come up with a solution that allowed the fish to continue living and the students to continue learning about their organs.
This was how thanks to genetic manipulation, these scientists managed to create a transparent gold fish, in which the heart, brain and other internal organs can be easily seen. Science at the service of education and animal rights.
6 Mice that Sing
Have you ever wondered what scientists do when they are bored at work? Well, they do experiments, only they don't do it expecting some specific result. This is how singing mice were born. Several scientists in Japan decided to put a bunch of genes into several mice just to see what happened. The result? Mice that seemed to sing like birds.
The most interesting thing was that by putting normal mice to live with the genetically modified ones, the normal ones began to use different tones and sounds to communicate with each other. It is as if they have learned a new language. So now you know, the next time you hear the birds singing, they might come from the sewer and not from the trees.
5 Genetically Modified Babies
Can we decide what our babies will look like? According to a series of experiments carried out in 2001, it is possible. The scientists used a method called "cytoplasmic transfer," to introduce DNA from a different person from the parents, into 30 babies. At birth, only 15 of them recorded the genes of the three genetic donors. However, by following the cases years later, they found that as a result of the experiment, one of the children had developed autism. Would you be willing to genetically modify your baby?
4 Pharmaceutical Camels
For scientists in Dubai, the best way to cure genetic diseases in humans is by modifying animals so that they generate healing proteins in the milk they produce, so by consuming it, we could cure ourselves of different diseases. The funny thing is that these experiments in the Middle East have focused on camels. Why? Because according to these scientists they are cheap, resistant to diseases, easy to maintain and capable of adapting to many climates. Who knows, maybe the next time you get sick, you don't need to buy medicine, but rather a glass of nutritious camel milk.
3 Cats that Glow in the Dark
There is a very common disease in cats called feline immunodeficiency virus, something like the distant cousin of HIV. To prevent our furry friends from continuing to suffer from this disease, a group of scientists from the United States and Japan joined forces and inserted a gene that allowed them to better resist feline Immunodeficient Virus. But in order to track the cells that contained this gene, the scientists also introduced fluorescent jellyfish proteins, making the cats look normal by day, but glow at night. That’s going to affect their nocturnal hunting.
2 Pig with Monkey Face
A strange birth surprised and horrified farmers in Jiangmen City in Guangdong Province of China. A mother sow gave birth to a total of 15 young, but one of them was born completely deformed, because instead of having a pink trunk and pig eyes, it seemed to have monkey eyes and two holes near the nose. Immediately, some people wanted to joke that maybe the sow's mother mated with a monkey and this had been the result. However, some farmers claim that the strange mutation is due to scientifically engineered foods and pollution.
1 Hybrid Creatures Between Animals and Humans
Would you like to see a baby with an elephant trunk? How about a man with a gorilla's skull? Fortunately, these mutations are not possible in the laboratory, but in the workshop of the Australian artist Patricia Piccinini, who through her sculptures investigates and reflects the risk that biotechnology and genetic manipulation can represent if they get out of control. . To do this, she investigates the anatomy of animals and humans, and then makes her creations with different materials, including human hair. Would you like to have any physical characteristics of your favorite animal?
As you could see, evolution is no longer the only means by which new species or new animals are born. Now science allows us to intervene in this natural process and modify certain things at our whim, in most cases, with the intention of improving the quality of life of animals or finding alternative treatments for our own diseases. It is also possible that in the coming years we may see a combination of more advanced animals, such as a dog with cat claws or perhaps a chicken that can fly like a seagull. Remember that science always finds ways to surprise us.
