Japan's Unique Cow/Whale Hybrid Experiments

RemyBR writes "Controversial scientific research happens all the time, but a review conducted by scientists in Japan uncovered a list of 'bizarre' trials - including one program designed to crossbreed cows with whales.'Scientists have analyzed 43 research papers produced by Japan over 18 years, finding most were useless or esoteric. The scientific research included injecting minke whale sperm into cows eggs, and attempts to produce test-tube whale babies.'"

Comments

Re:Love It or Hate It?

[greginnj]

Agreed, cows and whales sounds ridiculous. But my first reaction was - I'm sure "Japan" has published more than 43 research papers in 18 years; how did they pick these?? And a quick check of TFA reveals:

A review of the controversial scientific research conducted by Japan and its whalers has uncovered...

Aha! So it's not just the Ploxmire awards, it's a review of the specious "research" the whalers conduct in order to continue hunting whales. These crucial words were left out of the summary, and makes it seem even more ridiculous. Makes much more sense now, and explains why whales are involved, and they won't bother with sloths and sea sponges. It's sort of a more gruesome version of Canadian lottery quizzes.

The summary should probably mention

[TimeZone]

that these experiments were solely intended to allow Japan to continue it's whaling operations (under the guise of said "research") and that everyone involved probably knew the experiments were ridiculous and a scam.
So it's not like this is some mad scientist thing or anything. Just business. As usual.

TZ

why cows and whales

[sdedeo]

Actually, if you were going to pick some creature to go with whales, it would be the hippopotamus. In the evolutionary chain that you can establish with DNA, whales got back into the water rather late. But as someone noted below, this article is about papers that come out of "scientific" whaling -- which is really just a cover for the Japanese to hunt the endangered species for cash. So I guess they went with cows, because they are pretty cheap and it's probably easier to do whatever phony-science you want (e.g., because of agriculture, getting your cow DNA sequenced is probably somthing you can just mail in.)

Beware! My knowledge of evolution and cetaceans comes only from Richard Dawkins books which I last read like three years ago (I highly recommend The Ancestor's Tale, if you've already read the classics like Selfish Gene and Extended Phenotype.)

Re:Love It or Hate It?

[The Fun Guy]

Of all the animals you had to pick from you went with cows and whales?

Actually, cows (Bos taurus) are members of the Aritodactyla order:

Cetaceans

One group of artiodactyls (which molecular biology suggests were most closely related to Hippopotamidae) returned to the sea to become whales. Thus Artiodactyla without Cetacea is a paraphyletic group. For this reason, the term Cetartiodactyla was coined to refer to the group containing both artiodactyls and whales.[3]

Commingling of sperm and egg will let you know how closely related the molecular recognition is between these related species. Count the number of divisions in the zygote until it fails due to genetic incompatibility, and you have more information on cross-species recognition. Since you already know how closely cows and whales are (by molecular fingerprinting), that will let you calibrate this information.

It's value can be seen in modern cross-breeding of more closely related animals, and how to suppress incompatibilities to allow for valuable traits to be incorporated into livestock from wild cousins.

Big Book O' Mad Science Experiments

[smellsofbikes]

Anyone who reads this summary (without realizing that this is just a way to keep whaling under the guise of research) and thinks "dude, that's messed-up: I wonder what other shenanigans scientsts get up to?" should go read Elephants On Acid (and other bizarre experiments). It's a seriously strange book just chock-full of "they did WHAT? Dear Lord, *WHY*?" experiments. I thought it was interesting as a book because some of the experiments, I was like "cool, I've always wondered about that" when other people (my girlfriend, brother, best friend) were all "they did WHAT??!?" and likewise, they found meaning in other experiments that I thought were completely delusional. (Yeah, I'm saying the validity of experiments is relative.) There are some really truly gruesome experiments discussed in here, though, truly Frankenstein nightmare experiments done in the USSR, so it's not for the weak of stomach. But it's a great read.

Re:Love It or Hate It?

[tompaulco]

Of all the animals you had to pick from you went with cows and whales?
Well, this makes some sense. Scientists believe that whales and cows descended from a common ancestor. Evolution detractors use this as a point to mock scientists, since whale tails move up and down while cow tails move side to side, and cows breathe through their mouth while whales have a blowhole on top of their head. It IS pretty apocryphal that two species could vary so much in only 40 to 50 million years in a species that goes decades between generations.

Re:Yeah, right.

[calebt3]

No. I browse a 0 with -1 minimized but onscreen. Virtually everybody that says they will get modded down ends up +3 or higher.

Re:Some day...

[nacturation]

I assume you have a similar objection to the USDA? I get your point, but I suppose I just have a soft spot for whales so you'll excuse me if I don't take an all-or-nothing approach.