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Scientists Build a Smarter Rat

Posted by timothy on from the politicians-still-mostly-in-the-lead dept.

destinyland writes "Scientists have engineered a more intelligent rat, with three times the memory length of today's smartest rats. Reseachers bred transgenic over-expression of the NR2B gene, which increased communication between the rat's memory synapses. Activating a crucial brain receptor for just a fraction of a second longer produces a dramatic effect on memory, as proven by the rat's longer memories of the path through a maze."

3 of 302 comments (clear)

  1. Needs much more work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    When they can scale it up from lawyers to humans, we might have something useful to talk about.

  2. Re:The world needs this.... by russotto · · Score: 5, Funny

    Go live in a rat-infested portion of a city and then tell us again anyone objecting to this experiment is "paranoid".

    It's not a real problem. These rats with their superior maze-following ability will be nerds among rats, and thus will not reproduce in the wild.

  3. Re:Actually I wonder what the downside is by Trent+Hawkins · · Score: 5, Funny

    After all, if more memory were that simple, surely evolution would have changed that gene by itself. If it were a tradeoff, that would be much more logical. So what did these rats lose ? Do they have gaps in long term memory ? I'd watch out for the "no free lunch" idea holding true here too.

    Evolution decided that when creature has to eating nothing but rotting crap all it's life, it's best that the creature not be able to ponder on the matter.