Scientists Produce Fearless Mice

Dotnaught writes "According to New Scientist, a Rutgers University geneticist has found that turning off a specific gene for the protein stathmin makes mice fearless. The story speculates that this research might improve treatment for phobias. It does not mention obvious military applications for the discovery. As noted in this Naval Officer's guide for managing fatigue, the use of amphetamines to stay alert, followed by sedatives to sleep, has a long tradition. Genetic treatments may offer an alternative to pharmaceuticals."

Comments

My Vision of the Future

[Anonymous Coward]

These mice escape and breed in the wild. Enormous of fearless mice terrorize the world's cat population. It's not going to be pretty.

Re:My Vision of the Future

[runciter44]

In fact this situation is possible and not funny at all.

Re:My Vision of the Future

[bersl2]

Here's what I was thinking:

NIMH unavailable for comment.

Re:My Vision of the Future

[ozmanjusri]

In fact this situation is possible and not funny at all.

It was the night before Christmas and a creature was stirring. It was a mouse, a grey mouse, a lean and hungry grey mouse.
A slight breeze shuffled discarded newspapers in the grimy alley as the mouse crept a little closer to its prey. The tip of its scaly tail twitched in anticipation as it tensed its muscles for the leap.

With saliva dripping from its fangs, the mouse covered the intervening centimetres in a huge bound, jaws fastening viciously onto its prey, a high-pitched growl issuing from deep from within its belly. Snarling, the ferocious rodent tore at the flesh of its enemy, and the rottweiler leapt to its feet with a surprised yelp.

The mouse, every muscle shaking with anger and bloodlust, bit deeper through the rottweiler's fur, amost drawing blood, until the startled dog nipped its head off and swallowed it.

No, you're right, it isn't funny.

Re:My Vision of the Future

[GuyWithLag]

In fact, I've seen a cat being chased by a mouse. Yes, a mouse, not a rat... Talk about a Bizarro-style experience ....

Re:My Vision of the Future

[hachete]

lots of dead mice.

Re:My Vision of the Future

[RAMMS EIN]

I've seen cats being bullied by a bird. At my folks' place, they had this bird fly in one day, some yellow tropical one. Because the bird wouldn't go away, and nobody responded to the ad they put up, they decided to keep it, so they got a cage and all that.

They also have two cats. I tend to attribute all kinds of things to cats, and one of them is that they have a sense of what they're allowed to do and what not. I guess the cats figured that this bird was part of the household, and somebody would get very pissed if they harmed the bird in any way. Or maybe they just found the bird so scary that they didn't dare to lift a paw to it.

At any rate, we all figured that it would be good for the bird to get some exercise, so we would usually let it out of the case (somehow the bird had the decency not to shit all over the house, or try to eat everything it came across). One day, one of the cats was sleeping somewhere on the floor, and I was watching (to intervene should murder be attempted) as the bird approached the sleeping cat and pick at it with its beak. The cat stirred a bit, but otherwise paid no attention. Then the bird picked again, and again, until the cat eventually woke up, looked at the bird (who leaped back a few paces), and then decided to try sleeping again. Since that time, the bird has been positively annoying the cats, to the point that the cats wouldn't want to sleep in the room where the bird was.

Eventually, the bird flew away, never to return.

Re:My Vision of the Future

[dreamchaser]

I for one...oh forget it.

Re:My Vision of the Future

[kryten_nl]

Eventually, the bird flew away, never to return.

That's what the cat told you, wasn't it?

Re:My Vision of the Future

[wernerpm]

I warned you! But did you listen to me? Oh, no, you knew it all, didn't you? Oh, it's just a harmless little mouse, isn't it? Well, it's always the same, I always...

Re:My Vision of the Future

[Anonymous Coward]

Score:5, Informative

Dude, that was Tom & Jerry.

Speaking of bizaare experiences...

Re:My Vision of the Future

[budgenator]

We had a sulpher crested cockateel; when let out for exercise the bird would sit on the curtain rod and actually call the cat. When the cat came in the room, the bird would swoop down just above the cat's reach. Eventualy the cat grew tired of being teased and started to reduce the height of his jumps, in return the bird swooped lower untill the cat finaly nailed the bird and sent him sailing across the floor. While the cat's feet flailed to get traction, the bird was getting up and shook the daze out of his head. The cat was now starting to make some progress on the slippery floor, so the bird let out a loud hiss which caused the cat's feet to start spinning in the opposite direction.
The whole thing seemed more like something from saturady morning cartoons, than something that would really happen. they continued to do this, but not with the same gusto as before.

Like Red Baron

[mindflow]

Now scientist need to figure out how to make theese mice pilot planes.

Re:Like Red Baron

[Incadenza]

Have I got news for you.

Won't somebody think...

[Anonymous Coward]

of those poor elephants! Or ladies in the kitchen standing on a high chair!

There's already a fearless mouse

[Anonymous Coward]

Looks like Isadore Klein beat them to the punch. He created a fearless mouse in 1942. http://www.toonopedia.com/mightym.htm

Now I'm Scared..

[Plunky]

Come on Mickey, are you a MAN or a MOUSE?

AAAAAAAAAGGHHHH!

In other news.....

[Gunnery Sgt. Hartman]

More mice have been committing suicide by cat.

Anyone see Equilibrium?

[vodkamattvt]

So we got fear, now there are a few more emotions to get rid of and we can make Equilibrium come true. Now that's practical applicaton of science.

Re:Anyone see Equilibrium?

[Rude Turnip]

/me thinks you didn't watch Equilibrium close enough...removing all those emotions was a *bad* thing, except for when Christian Bale killed all those guys that tried to take his puppy.

Obligatory fearless mice joke...

[KingSkippus]

Three mice were sitting in a bar, each trying to impress the others with how tough they were.

The first one said, "When I see a mousetrap, I deliberately set it off, bench press the bar fifty times, then snack on the cheese."

The second one, not to be outdone, said, "Yeah? Well, every morning when I get out of bed, I stir in some cream and rat poison in my coffee. It gives me a good buzz that really wakes me up and gets me going."

They both look at the third mouse who, after a few seconds, gets up and says, "I don't have time for this bullshit. I've got to go home and fuck the cat."

Re:Obligatory fearless mice joke...

[Jommeke]

Now all we need is a fearless cat and we have Itchy and Scratchy for real.

Danger Mouse

[wenchmagnet]

He's The Best
He's The Greatest
He's The Greatest Secret Agent In The World!
He's The Ace - He's Amazing...
He's the Strongest... He's The Quickest.... He's The Best!

I hate you parental units!

[mbarron]

GeneEnhanced mice children grow up even faster without fear of their parents. Leaving them without a rigid sense of boundaries, invarively leading to the inhanced mice killing their parents for the inheritance.

Till the day when they have their own children, these second generation child mice reject their parents just like the previous generation rejected their parents.
Leaving killing the child mice as the only solution, before they become too grownup and strong to stop.

Thus putting an end to the whole experiment, as the original generation dies when they finally turn on each other in boredom.

laser mice...

[NoSuchGuy]

What about a laser mounted on the backs of these mice?

Oh, never mind

Re:Isn't fear important?

[TrappedByMyself]

Imagine hordes of these running fearless into machinegun fire... Very effective, I presume....

Been there, done that. We called it World War I

Re:oh lord!

[jouvart]

See, it was all as Douglas Adams predicted. This proves that mice really are pan-dimensional super soldiers waiting to be triggered. I, for one, welcome our new fearless rodent overlords!

Re:Apologies in advance, but...

[Mjlner]

I think you meant...
I, for one, welcome our new fearless rodent overlords. I'd like to remind them as a trusted Slashdot poster, I can be helpful in rounding up others to toil in their underground cheese caves.

I for one....

[rathehun]

....have a large stock of cheese, for our new....

Why wouldn't they be fearless?

[TheLoneDanger]

Why the hell shouldn't they be fearless, when they are now regenerating too? Goddammit, we have to stop this madness before we are overrun by marauding fearless regenerating mice. The irony is that we need many, many more fearful, even irrationally fearful peopl to avert this impending horror. Scream with me people! "The Mice are coming! The Mice are coming!"

A fearless soldier is a crap soldier

[Julian Morrison]

"Hey check this out, I'm not in the least afraid anymore. Hmm, I wonder what it feels like to plough an airplane into the ground on full afterburner. Whee, fast! Hello mr cornfield. Ooh, a scarecrow. My, that ground sure is big."

USB

[linumax]

Does this have any impact on USB mice?

Re:USB

[lw54]

Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something. -- Plato

DNA exchange....

[Anonymous Coward]

It was merely a DNA exchange with the fearless rats in the White House.

Nothing to see here, move along...

Re:If the fearless-gene was beneficial for the mic

[Anonymous Coward]

But you don't understand: GOD made mice with the fear gene 6000 years ago. Now these evil scientists are tinkering with GOD's intelligent design and they will unleash DAEMONS. :-/

These already exist

[Karem Lore]

They are called lemmings...

The perfect mouse

[DrMrLordX]

I'd love a mouse like this! I'd name him Johan, and let him loose in cages of other mice just to see how long it would be before they all died. Except Johan, of course.

In the end, Johan would only kill me, though. I guess that was part of the plan from the start.

Wait a second...

[McD]

...a Rutgers University geneticist...

Rutgers? Didn't we read about them loosing three plague mice into the wild a few months back?

I don't know what these Rutgers scientists are up to, but I think we can all agree that "Fearless Wild Plague Rodents" would be an excellent name for a rock and roll band.

Re: Fearless mouse - powered by beer

[Getzen]

Reminds of that Guinness rhyme (feel free to substitute your favorite brew):

Some Guinness was spilt on the bar-room floor
Just around closing one night,
And a wee little mousie crept out of his hole
And into the pale moonlight.
He lapped up all of that dark frothy brew
And back on his haunches he sat,
And all the night long you could hear that mouse roar,
"Bring on that god-damned cat!"

Getzen

Huh.

[StarKruzr]

There really IS a club for everything, isn't there?

Re:Huh.

[ichigo 2.0]

Hey, I'm a member of the Pet Flesh-eating Bacteria Club, you insensitive clod!

I for one...

[InterestingX]

welcome our cheese-eating overlords

Re:Good old PCP

[HTH NE1]

Users of PCP report memory loss, difficulties with speech and learning, depression, and weight loss. These symptoms can persist up to a year after cessation of PCP use. PCP has sedative effects, and interactions with other central nervous system depressants, such as alcohol and benzodiazepines, can lead to coma or accidental overdose. Use of PCP among adolescents may interfere with hormones related to normal growth and development.

Ask your doctor if PCP is right for you.