Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Chemical Cocktail Turns Mice Clear

Posted by samzenpus on from the thank-you-science dept.

sciencehabit writes "Researchers have serendipitously discovered that a mixture of urea, glycerol, and soap makes membranes transparent. When they tried the mixture on a developing mouse fetus, they found that it removed all of the pigment from the cells, rendering the fetus completely transparent. The technique allowed scientists to see fluorescent neurons buried several millimeters in the brain."

22 of 145 comments (clear)

  1. wow by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I already see the next requirement from TSA..

  2. Discovered in a previously unknown manuscript by gstrickler · · Score: 2

    Steinbeck's "Of Invisible Mice and Men".

    --
    make imaginary.friends COUNT=100 VISIBLE=false
    1. Re:Discovered in a previously unknown manuscript by b4dc0d3r · · Score: 2, Funny

      I... I don't see what you did there.

  3. Hold up on your patents! by RevWaldo · · Score: 2, Funny

    I found prior art!

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kakweRCSd_s&feature=player_detailpage#t=87s

    .

    --
    Prisencolinensinainciusol. Ol Rait!
    1. Re:Hold up on your patents! by interkin3tic · · Score: 5, Informative

      They used extremely common lab materials and seem to have told everyone the recipe: no patent was sought here. If they we going to try to sell it, they'd announce they had a secret, proprietary formula that could make your embryos turn clear. RIKEN, the institute that made the discovery, is not greedy. I've gotten DNA constructs from them before, they provided them free of charge, no contact making us promise to not share it, etc. If I could speak Japanese and if they'd hire me, I'd love to work there.

  4. Not the worst by ElrondHubbard · · Score: 2
    That's not the worst thing science has ever done to a mouse:

    http://www.milk.com/wall-o-shame/polytron.html

    --
    "The deep-fried Mars bar is a symptom of a wider crisis." -- Nutritionist Ann Ralph, on the Scottish diet
    1. Re:Not the worst by Hatta · · Score: 2

      You know, they do euthanize the mice before they homogenize them, right? Scientists are not wantonly cruel.

      --
      Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
    2. Re:Not the worst by Genda · · Score: 3, Informative

      When you "Blend" a mouse, you are typically doing some kind of chemical or cellular assay (depending on the level of blending you may be looking at whole cells, but more than likely you're looking at chemistry, genetic material or sub cellular organelles.) Making a Frappe' of Mr. Muscus, really makes doing other testing difficult to impossible and adding large amounts of oxygen to disrupted tissues damages delicate cellular chemistry, ultimately ruining your research. So when you make mouse soup, it should as much as possible be sans frothy head.

  5. WHY DIS HAPPEN :( by spazdor · · Score: 2

    I'm just gonna come out and say it.

    Science is horrible

    --
    DRM: Terminator crops for your mind!
  6. Greatest obituary line ever... by Lord_of_the_nerf · · Score: 5, Funny

    Eaten alive by invisible rats.

    Science is about making horrible dreams a reality.

    1. Re:Greatest obituary line ever... by gknoy · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Science is about making horrible dreams a reality.

      Somewhere, someone just found a new signature. ;)

    2. Re:Greatest obituary line ever... by Sasayaki · · Score: 5, Funny

      Done and done.

      --
      Check out my sci-fi book "Lacuna" at http://goo.gl/MVxX8
  7. Re:Looks like a creepy gummi bear by LurkerXXX · · Score: 2

    Wait, that's not a baby mouse, that's a baby Predator!

  8. Re:dubious science by interkin3tic · · Score: 5, Informative

    Yes it will. Controls will be treated as well. Furthermore, this isn't a live technique. You fix the embryo with paraformadehyde first probably. This is for looking at morphology of cells or tissues, not living function. You have one mouse line with a mutation that causes blindness, one without, you cross in a fluorescent marker that makes their optic nerves glow. You get the embryos, fix them, do this thing to them, then you can clearly see how it's affecting the nerve, for example. A lot less disruptive than the alternative of cutting it into slices.

  9. Re:HG Wells gets another one right? by mmmmbeer · · Score: 2

    No, it was "The Invisible Mouse" by Edmund Wells.

  10. Doesn't seem that difficult... by pLnCrZy · · Score: 2

    Kevin Bacon did it 11 years ago. To a gorilla. And then himself.

  11. Re:Phew! by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 3, Funny

    Mice aren't dumb enough to fall for that.

    --
    My God, it's Full of Source!
    OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
  12. Chemical Cocktails by devphaeton · · Score: 2

    I know a few chemical cocktails that can make people THINK they're invisible. And bulletproof.

    --


    do() || do_not(); // try();
  13. What a novelty! by Genda · · Score: 2

    Makes one wonder if there is a less toxic way to attain the same effect? Definitely an ice breaker at parties! On the flip side, adding this concoction to embalming fluid would almost certainly make for exciting funerals!!!

  14. Re:H.G. Wells had it first by hedwards · · Score: 2

    Now if only we could develop some sort of device for changing history, we could go back and make sure he doesn't give us any ideas.

  15. Are you ponderin' what I'm ponderin'? by Arancaytar · · Score: 5, Funny

    - That we turn ourselves invisible and take over the world?
    - EXACTLY

  16. Re:When Is It Cruel? by Doc+Ruby · · Score: 2

    No. Are you volunteering to never agree with anything because you don't agree with me in this specific instance? Of course not. The question is whether there is a limit of cruelty that's not worth what we get from the research that requires the cruelty.

    --

    --
    make install -not war