Slashdot Mirror

There are GMO salmon. There are also GMO fluorescent tropical fish available at my local Petco.

Or, the makers of GloFish:

http://www.glofish.com/license.html

You think this cable thing is silly? I got a better one.

The GloFish is a zebra danio that's been remixed with genes from a jellyfish in order to produce a 1980s neon look. These pet fish are supposed to be shipped sterilized, but just in case yours breed... the license agreement tells you that you can't sell the offspring.

http://www.glofish.com/license.html

I have no idea how enforceable this is since you don't even click to agree when buying the fish. It seems absurd. How can such a "license" be binding?

Hey, maybe I can set up a breeding tank for these contraband HDMI cables. Are they egglayers or livebearers?

Slashdot covered glofish (tm) years ago.

But, perhaps, the perfect gift for a glow-in-the-dark cat?

Would you settle for something kinda like a goldfish, really only because it's a fish, too?

I bet these guys are already working on it.

See, the thing about evolution is, by most scientific standards of today, a good majority of the principles Darwin outlined in The Origin of Species are actually provable.

Oh yeah - you have a prove for origin of every single species on Earth? I bet this one will disagree and so will killer bees. How do you know that there is not a single animal or plant that you consider wild that hasn't been in fact created by ancient humans through artificial selection and breeding that wouldn't happen in nature due to size/habitat/different mating habits? Wouldn't it be in fact an instance of intelligent design?

In fact, my parents gave some thought to the idea of procreating and the factors involved went beyond survival of the fittest. For all I know cro-magnum also thought with their big head once in a while. Doesn't this in fact make me a product of intelligent design? If some of my ancestors were religious and married according to the doctrine, didn't the founder of their religion play some role in my genetic linage, perhaps a bigger one than physical characteristics?

Actually, both of those theories are backed by fact, but make unsubstianted claims that life didn't originate or change over time in any other ways. For example, Glofish definitely came to be through creationism. If it ever wanted a religion, it would be able to name both their creator and their purpose in life. And certainly there are many fossil records as well as contemporary experience in husbandry that shows evolution does take place and is the origin of many species. But, there are also inherent properties of hydrocarbons and DNA that limits the number of ways a particular desired trait can be realized. There are probably only so many ways a carbon-based organism can have vision, hearing, muscles, metabolism... This boils down to laws of physics in our Universe, but who is to say if the universe is intelligent and can be considered a kind of God, or what does this god want? Individual humans are intelligent and have certain moral objectives. It appears that millions of humans together have collective intelligence and morals that are sometimes more and sometimes less than that of an individual. It certainly seems unscientific to exclude the possibility that the universe at large has intelligence, moral objectives and a hand in making human species who we are.

I do think it's extremely unlikely that intelligent universe/god(s) would care about our sex lives or support war in Iraq. If anything, it behooves on us to fight increase in entropy whenever we can.

I thought Glofish, that serve a similar purpose, (see ancient /. reference somewhere) were a dynamite product. What nerd could resist a home aquarium of genetically-mutant glowing fish?

But you can hardly find them in my metro, California made them illegal and it seems like large chains like PetSmart aren't carrying them. I guess either it's a good thing I'm not in marketing or PetSmart is stupid.

I thought glofish would be a natural with techno-nerds:

http://www.glofish.com/pictures.asp

But about the closest store near me that stocks them is in the far exurbs near the nuke plant -- which I guess is poetic.

I haven't seen goldfish, but you can get zebra fish. http://www.glofish.com/default.asp

Glofish have been commercially available for a little while now. http://www.glofish.com/about.asp

Well, you could try to jump and see if you just float away into space. Or wait until half of the molecules in your room float to one side, leaving you in vacuum.

Given that both evolution and intelligent design were observed experimentally, I suspect that neither one can be falsified though. Who knows about those aliens releasing engineered bacteria into thermal springs on ancient earth.

Finally, an intelligent response, not one out to have me locked away as a lunatic for playing devil's advocate and supporting the possibility that Intelligent Design could be a viable "theory" (not scientific, just a theory.)

In response to your questions:

Gravity is a fact. What gravity is is still highly unknown and debatable. Do large mass bodies bend space-time? Is gravity between two large objects simply one getting caught in the bend in space-time caused by another? So many unanswered questions. But I place your question akin to the question "Would you view life and conciousness as a theory or fact?" Of course life exists. What it is or how it got here (or if there is an afterlife) is extremely questionable at this time.

Also, in case anyone here reads this far down the post chain, I certainly do not proport that ID is yet a scientific theory. But it's damn sure a hypothesis. Hell, we can't design an entire life form yet, but we can, in a lab, alter DNA and genetic makeup to produce visible, observable changes in animals (Glofish, for instance. Or hypoallergenic cats.) Intelligent design at the feature level is observable and recreatable - one of the requirements for moving a hypothesis to a theory.

But these are just my two cents.

Before you start spouting the latest intelligent design "evidence," know that I've already read it. The problem is that all of this evidence is not analyzed to discover the truth, it is gathered with the express purpose of supporting a conclusion that is already assumed to be correct. That's bad science, and doesn't hold water with me.

Please analyze the following evidence and tell me your conclusions. Intelligent design at work!

This reminds me of GloFish, genetically engineered zebrafish which fluoresce light. Does anyone know if those are actually selling well?

I want one, but they're banned in California. Gah!

Haven't these people seen the movie yet?

First Glofish, now this... wtf!

magine a Siamese with a pleasant disposition! Maybe they could splice in some dog genes to get a cat that wags it's tail and plays fetch.

I had a Siamese cat a few years ago that acted pretty much like a dog. He'd fetch balls of crumpled paper for me, and he had quite a pleasant disposition too. He didn't wag his tail though. To catch my attention, he'd run around the house for momentum, then jump onto the back rest of a sofa, grip it with his front claws, then release.

When I saw him fly and spin across the room, I knew he wanted out.

they might as well add that "glow in the dark" gene they put in fish

May I point out that those fish don't produce any light by themselves?

From glofish.com:
Nighttime Viewing - In cases where the room is completely dark, a black light will create the appearance that the fish are glowing in the dark. This is a truly stunning and beautiful way to display your ornamental fish at night! But please remember that the black light will only be helpful in a completely dark room. Using a black light during the daytime will not result in the fish demonstrating its true beauty.

Dunno. My Glofish might like it. I only got females. And that's like that dinosaur island movie. These females must be mighty desperate and find these cells in my game pad to be male-looking. Don't want to start them mutating or something.

Do a little reading and you will find that DNA is very easily added to a species genome.

Now, I will provide some evidence to back this up: Viral Transformation is a very common tool for genetic alterations of organisms. It is also a common occurance in non-intended genetic alterations, such as Cowpea mosaic comovirus which inserts its DNA into plants (please note that plants are considered higher organisms).

But wait! If plants are still not good enough for you, there is the GloFish which is a genetic alteration allowing it to fluoresce. Now, it would be highly unethical to do this to a human, but it is very possible.

In addition, there are many things in the human genome (LINEs, SINEs, etc) that frequently move. How do you think that everyone ends up with a different genome if nothing is able to change? Most changes and mutations don't do anything or cause harm, but with time good ones will arise. In fact, good mutations (at least in their terms) frequently occur in bacteria and viruses allowing them to become immune to antibiotics and to our specific T-cells (respectively).

The morality of THIS endeavor is a subject for a separate discussion, I believe.

California has put in a bid to not allow the flowers to ever be planted. They could cause worldwide destruction much like the Glofish

Beware!

Not only that, but apparently we'll be seeing them going on sale... in the past! The website says, if I may quote:

GloFish(TM) fluorescent fish will be on sale at a pet shop near you beginning January 5, 2003 .

Oh, I can't wait till the beginning of 2003 now! Oh, wait....