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Couch-Potato Gene Found In Mice
syousef writes "Good news for those of us who are prone to putting on weight sitting in front of a computer screen. The Sydney Morning Herald is reporting on research which shows that changing a single gene in mice turns them from couch potatos into super-athlete mice that don't get fat and are able to run for hours. They believe this has the potential to lead to a pill to turn similar genes on in humans. From the article: '"It is a pill that, in part, mimics exercise. It mimics the metabolic activity associated with exercise," said Ronald Evans, of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, who led the study. Writing in the journal Public Library of Science Biology, Dr Evans and colleagues said they tweaked the PPAR-delta gene to stay in a permanently "on" position and then genetically engineered mice with it. They expected to see changes in metabolism but were surprised at how extensive they were.'"
I've got it. I could've saved them a lot of time...
I wonder what the new life expectancy of these super metabolizers is.
There are 01 types of people in this world. Those that understand binary, and me.
Now we can make potato chips out of mice!
Or am I misunderstanding the title of the story?
this?
-ashot
Just like winning $100,000 at the lottery can't replace working hard to get those $100,000.
Sounds interesting, but I'm too lazy to RTFA.
Beauty is in the eye of the beerholder.
I'm sure my boss would like to see me spending my time running through the maze of the cube farm looking for cheese.
Invalid Checksum. Retrying.
This all sounds very promising, but if it would be all good and all, why didn't a mutation in the past turn this gene on? There must be a downside, because it seems to me the organisms with this gene haven't evolved the way it looks now.
It will happen.
This was only all over every news program, radio talk show and website (fark, drudge, etc) in the universe a week ago. Way to keep up with the times slashdot.
Sounds great but I cbf'd going to get the pill. Can't they put it in the water or something?
I couldn't find it, but I know I read this here last week. The article stated that by switching the gene they went from procrastinators to workaholics.
Unless they're different genes, in which case we could go from being procrastinating couch potatoes to workaholic super-athletes.
Yikes.
Karma: Chameleon (mostly due to the fact that you come and go).
I've been wondering about the outstanding swimming and cycling results the Aussies are having/had at the Olympics..
If we (Australia) beat the French it will be all worth it.
Isn't that just what the mice want us to think? I mean, after all, this planet is THEIR experiment.
Read: ADD/ADHD
main(0)
Always wondering, in genetic marketing speeches, how they can pretend that a pill or any process can change genetic code in an already grown being. To change a gene in my body, they'd have to reprogram billions of cells, one by one. Even cancer, which is a mutated DNA, can't propagate fast enough to replace all my cells (and god knows cancer cells reproduces quickly) in a few years. Maybe they have truck-stop stale egg-salad sandwiches on their mind?
Feel ready to own one ore many Tux Stickers?
I'd like to bust a move into this debate which is sometimes assumed and rarely taken.
Evolution is not "progress" it is adaptation. This is such a key concept that many of people miss. Things evolve back and forth according to their environment.
Humans, as a cognative creature, subvert this partially - in that physical evolution is trumped by cognative evolution. But even cognative evolution is trumped by social evolution. You can be much more stupid, but if your society (a meta-organism if you will) has better schools/educative practices you will pwn the smarter ones. Some of the debates about us pwning the neanderthals go into this - us using our social power to beat them.
But returning to the point, there are many scientists and activists who believe that there is some predetermined greatness we are heading towards and that genetic engineering allows us to press fast forward on so to speak. This tripe. We aren't "heading" anywhere, we are adapting to environments. So anyone who uses this technique to justify what they want to do to humans, is using a bs argument.
This makes people like advocate aborting disabled babies (like the philosopher singer) true monsters as they are saying that the natural randomness of evolution (which may or may not give the defect holder an advantage and take over the gene pool) is wrong and that there is a "true" course to our travels - which there simply is not.
Anyway, the "laziness" gene is there in some people for a reason, it's there because it is part of a process of adaptation. When we turn it off we are not "doing what is natural and taking away a "defect"" we are subverting people's natural states. This is dangerous to do without thinking about it. What happens when certain political ideologies become "defects" - anything to do with behaviour/mind and genetics over mere survival (I don't oppose fixing people with genetically busted livers etc.) is a dangerous propsition.
I am not opposing it outright, but it needs to be thought through carefully with a mind to what evolution really means (adaptation) rather than falling in with the cheerleaders of "progress" and starting to modify everything.
Anway, a word of caution - as it is our generation who will set the playing field for the future on this one. And jokes and such that take these issues lightly are ok, but being entirely conservative (in the sense that humour always pulls us back to, or away from, a "norm") ties us to the discourse of "progress" - which is simply not the reality of evolution. Anyone who says otherwise is making a loaded truth claim as to what "normal" is.
"Yeah Dorris!"
"Then whys you still a-watching the tell-eey? Like one o dem couch pa-ta-toes"
"Dorris, I a-said don't talk to folks whom watching game, Dorris, get me another beer!"
"Yes Earl"
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Yes, thank you mice, once again you can made us believe we have discovered something, and now we await the time when you shall enslave us all.
Damn mice.
#hostfile 0.0.0.0 primidi.com 0.0.0.0 www.primidi.com 0.0.0.0 radio.weblogs.com
I hear they've determined that diarrhea is genetic. A scientific study has show that it runs in your jeans.
Obviously this is anti-evolutionary dehumanizing stuff. It is human to want to sit back and tell other people to do the work, this would mean you work your ass off forever. You burn more calories, and just work work work. Whereas laziness is a virtue for perl programmers (and maybe many other pursuits) that is, the point is not to do nothing but to use the minimum amount of time needed and just focus on the fun part.
I first thought maybe I should sign up for this gene thing but now I think it is scary. It is the kind of thing a future corporate suit collective could easily launch in a closed environment.. just making sure the managers don't get dosed. Presumably current outsourcing is based on a gradient in standard of living but when everyone is at the same standard then what? Will outsourcing contracts require genetic testing in the future? I'd rather have the switch to turn something like that on and off myself, or have no such gene at all and just hypnotize myself to clean the house and love it periodically. I think getting married probably would do that too.. not?
The current one involves mice that, with the gene in question turn on, were able to run much longer and farther than normal mice despite having the same activity level prior to the test (i.e. they didn't develop better athletic performance with extensive training). Also, they did not gain weight when food intake increased, even though activity did not.
Changing a single gene in mice turns them from couch potatos into super-athlete mice. Sounds like logitech marketing chit-chat to me...
--Use ant to make
That releases more dopamine in the brain when we resist reposting stories.1 2/1249240&tid=134
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