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Questions
1. The three green pigs; half polar/grizzly; robot arm with human touch; patio cow. What are the implications behind these developments?
2. How will such developments change the way people live?
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Green Pigs
In daylight, the researchers say the pigs' eyes, teeth and trotters look green. Their skin has a greenish tinge.
In the dark, shine a blue light on them and they glow torch-light bright.
The scientists will use the transgenic pigs to study human disease. Because the pig's genetic material encodes a protein that shows up as green, it is easy to spot.
So if, for instance, some of its stem cells are injected into another animal, scientists can track how they develop without the need for a biopsy or invasive test.
But creating them has not been easy. Many of the altered embryos failed to develop.
The researchers say they hope the new, green pigs will mate with ordinary female pigs to create a new generation - much greater numbers of transgenic pigs for use in research.
The scientists, from National Taiwan University's Department of Animal Science and Technology, say that although the pigs glow, they are otherwise no different from any others.
Taiwan is not claiming a world first. Others have bred partially fluorescent pigs before; but the researchers insist the three pigs they have produced are better.
They are the only ones that are green from the inside out. Even their heart and internal organs are green, the researchers say.
The pigs are transgenic, created by adding genetic material from jellyfish. It was injected into the womb of a sow which gave birth to the three pigs 114 days later. To create them, DNA from jellyfish was added to about 265 pig embryos which were implanted in eight different sows.
Although the pigs glow, they are otherwise no different from any others. In daylight, the researchers say the pigs’ eyes, teeth and trotters look green. Their skin has a greenish tinge. In the dark, shine a blue light on them and they glow torch-light bright.
What are the implications behind these developments?
Researchers hope the pigs will boost the island's stem cell research, as well as helping with the study of human disease. The scientists will use the transgenic pigs to study human disease because the pig's genetic material encodes a protein that shows up as green which is easy to spot.
So if, for instance, some of its stem cells are injected into another animal, scientists can track how they develop without the need for a biopsy or invasive test.
How will such developments change the way people live?
The researchers say they hope the new, green pigs will mate with ordinary female pigs to create a new generation - much greater numbers of transgenic pigs for use in research. Therefore, research would be easier for scientists and researchers and more diseases could be cured in long term. It would be helpful in the acceleration of clinical research of human stem cells as it is generally believed that physically pigs are among the animals which are most similar to human beings.
Standing about 23 to 28 inches tall, the mini cows can be kept in a small area and they feed on simple grasses and weeds. Patio cows are easier to work. They give up less meat but they can deliver more litres of top quality milk. Cuban Rancher Raul Hernandez has bred a herd of miniature cows that are a little over 3 feet tall. Despite their small size, they are able to provide about a gallon of milk per day if fed a diet of grass and weeds. This is taking the Stonyfield farms "have a cow” concept to new extremes! The Cuban mini cow may have a place in the market one day soon. Rancher Raul Hernandez has spent years cross-breeding a small bull with the tiniest cows he could find, to eventually come up with the mini cow, more the size of a dog than a cow and able to deliver four to five quarts of milk.They’re a great alternative for Cuban families looking for fresh milk. Now we’ll just wait for chocolate mini cow milk to appear in stores
Of the 8 females implanted with 265 pig embryos, only four became pregnant and only 3 pigs were born, a survival rate of just over 1%. Only one in a hundred (injected embryos) will successfully be transgenic.
Patio cows
Identify the technology. Explain it.
They are patio cows, easy to work. They give up less meat, but they can deliver four or five liters (quarts) of top quality milk to a family.
Who are the founders of the technology?
SAN JUAN Y MARTINEZ, Cuba - Rancher Raul Hernandez’s cows look just like other breed — only they are no larger than big dogs. They’re a perfect source of milk for Cuban families, he says.
What is the current state of development?
For at least the past 30 years, mainstream cattle breeders around the world, whether based on farms or in research stations, have worked at increasing the size of cattle breeds and the amount of meat and milk they produce.
A Holstein milk cow, which can produce about ten gallons of milk a day, will be at least twice as tall as a Hernandez cow. A beef cow, such as an Aberdeen-Angus, will be nearly twice as tall and up to four times as heavy.
But there are naturally small breeds, such as the Dexter, which stands about a metre (39 inches) high at the shoulder, and the native Shetland cow, which can survive on the poorest grazing.
These breeds, especially the Dexter, have been used by novelty breeders, mainly in the United States. One such operation is Pillard’s miniature cattle ranch in Iowa, which is trying to breed cattle less than 36 inches tall weighing less than 500lb. It seems that Mr Hernandez is ahead of the game.
What have they achieved so far?
With a speed which cattle-breeding specialists and geneticists around the world might envy, he claims that, five years on, he has reached his objective - a herd of cows that reach no higher than his waist.
He says his success has ranchers throughout the area pursuing breeding experiments to come up with their own tiny cows, while he is training local teenagers to help care for the little animals.
Standing about 23 to 28 inches tall, the mini cows can be kept in a small area and they feed on simple grasses and weeds.
What are the limitations of the technology?
Patio cows give less meat.
"It is possible to carry out extreme selection breeding programmes, with dogs the best-known example," he said. "From one ancestor, we have breeds that range from the tiny Chihuahua to the Irish wolfhound and most points in between, almost all produced by extreme interventionist methods.
"So, it is possible that Mr Hernandez has produced a breed of cattle barely the size of large dogs. Whether they would make useful family pets is another matter."
Fluorescent green pigs were first bred by a group of researchers led by Prof. Wu Shinn-Chih at the Department of Animal Science and Technology at National Taiwan University, announcing the results of the experiment in January 2006.
The transgenic pigs were created by adding DNA encoding for the Green Fluorescent Protein from fluorescent jellyfish to pig embryos which were then implanted in the utereus of female pigs.
Taiwanese researchers said Friday they have bred the pigs, all of them males, with a fluorescent material in a move they hope will benefit the island's stem cell research effort.
The fluorescent pigs are green from inside out, including their hearts and internal organs.
pigs are bred by injecting their embryos with fluorescent green protein taken from jelly fish.
"Only one in a hundred (injected embryos) will successfully be transgenic," Wu said.
Pigs are commonly used to study human diseases, and Wu believes his technique will be useful in helping researchers monitor tissue changes over time.
He said fluorescent cells would show up during stem cell treatment of diseased organs, allowing physicians to monitor the healing progress.
another team of Taiwanese researchers claimed they developed an alternative to laboratory mice for testing new medicines — using fluorescent fish to show the impact of experimental drugs on cancerous tumors.
They took a gene that makes jelly fish fluoresce and transplanted it into the livers of zebra fish that were then later implanted with cancer cells for testing.
The gene highlighted the cancerous tissue with a special tint, allowing the glowing zebra fish to be used for screening the impact of drugs.
1)Polar bears
As a result of global warming, sea ice in the Arctic is melting
earlier and forming later each year. Research funded by WWF found that polar bears are left with less time on the ice to hunt for food and build up their fat stores, and increased time on land where they must fast. As their ice habitat shrinks, skinnier and hungrier polar bears face a grave challenge to their survival.
2)DNA?
These miniature cows are beneficial to farmers because they feed on lesser grass than normal cows, but they still produce better quality milk than normal cows. therefore farmers can reap greater profits. on the other hand, they give less meat because of their small size.
Aisyah&Atikah (07A03)
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