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First Human-Pig 'Chimera' Created in Milestone Study (theguardian.com)
Scientists have created a human-pig hybrid in a milestone study that raises the prospect of being able to grow human organs inside animals for use in transplants. From a report: It marks the first time that embryos combining two large, distantly-related species have been produced. The creation of this so-called chimera -- named after the cross-species beast of Greek mythology -- has been hailed as a significant first step towards generating human hearts, livers and kidneys from scratch. Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte, who led the work on the part-pig, part-human embryos at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California, said: "The ultimate goal is to grow functional and transplantable tissue or organs, but we are far away from that. This is an important first step." The study has reignited ethical concerns that have threatened to overshadow the field's clinical promise. The work inevitably raises the spectre of intelligent animals with humanised brains and also the potential for bizarre hybrid creatures to be accidentally released into the wild. The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) placed a moratorium on funding for the controversial experiments last year while these risks were considered.
man-bear-pig?
ELOI, ELOI, LAMA SABACHTHANI!?
than the White House.
...but not one to Margaret Atwood? Don't forget the pigoons from Oryx and Crake* which were created specifically for organ transplantation.
* IMNSHO one of the best sci-fi works of all time
I can have bacon made from my donor pig, I'm good.
Show respect for the office.
You are welcome on my lawn.
death....to the stranger.
If this produces the inevitable result
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
Bonus points when you can make the tissue grow into any design you want. I want my 200 year rated super heart.
Ed... ward....
The human/pig has been around for a while now, and even has her own tv show. Here's what she looks like now.
For your security, this post has been encrypted with ROT-13, twice.
These creatures were featured on Doctor Who.
Anybody else get a sudden hankering for a BLT?
"Dr. Eugene McCarthy is a Ph.D. geneticist who has made a career out of studying hybridization in animals. He now curates a biological information website called Macroevolution.net where he has amassed an impressive body of evidence suggesting that human origins can be best explained by hybridization between pigs and chimpanzees."
https://phys.org/news/2013-07-...
In the free world the media isn't government run; the government is media run.
Many of the issues they appear to be studying do not require the use of human cells. For example, they talk about not knowing what would happen if the animal were to complete gestation since pigs only gestate for 112 days, but human embryos gestate for 9 months.
Well, then use two different animals that have vastly different gestation periods, and see what happens. You don't need to use human cells to find that out.
They also talk about not knowing whether or not the cells would migrate to the brain.
Again, use something else. Like, a mouse and an elephant. Or whatever.
It seems premature to be using human cells in these experiments if they haven't already answered these questions with other animal chimeras.
Which makes me wonder, why are they using human cells at all? Are they just going for headlines or what?
I mean, it's not "Island of Dr. Moreau" level creepy, but it's a start.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Ki...llll.....mee....eeee
The facilities to carry out this work was provided by a Dr. Moreau...........
"The ultimate goal is to grow functional and transplantable tissue or organs, but we are far away from that. This is an important first step."
If they are already growing human organs, how much farther do they have to go before they are transplantable?
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
...I thought we Americans were already doing that with the "science" of HAES.
When do we get Spider Pig?
ACK NAK RST
Why in god's name would I want a Pig's body with a Human brain?
Instead, let me raise a Human body (Female for me please) with the brain of, say, a Bonobo monkey.
And the worms ate into his brain.
There are many animals that are quite intelligent, but it's exceedingly unlikely that we would ever have the capability to genetically engineer an animal like a pig to have a human-like brain, even if we wanted to.
The reason is simple: our brains are way bigger than pig brains (human brain: about 3.5lbs, pig brain: 0.4lbs). In order to have a pig with a human-like brain, you'd have to completely reshape it's skull, and because a pig skull is very different from an ape skull, you'd have to do it in a very different way than humans do. To do this, you'd need to generate a wide variety of novel adaptations to make it so that a pig can support a brain that's about 8 times the size. That's just not happening.
What is being done in these kinds of experiments is far less ambitious: to use small amounts of human DNA to make animal tissues compatible for transplantation. This kind of research has gone on for a long time: it's common to genetically engineer mice and rats to have human immune systems, to make them better test subjects. In this case, if the research continues, you'll have a pig growing a pig liver, with some of its genetic markers changed just enough to fool a human body into thinking that it's a human liver rather than a pig liver.
I wonder what it tastes like?
Humans taste like pork...
The work inevitably raises the spectre of intelligent animals with humanised brains .. Excellent! - Scifi becoming fact, yet again...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
You can grow genetically pure pigs in a sterile environment. They do this already with flies, to use maggots to clean out necrotic tissue in ulcers. Gross, but it works incredibly well.
My Other Computer Is A Data General Nova III.
http://www.livescience.com/576... describes growing a mouse pancreas in a rat for diabetes research. There are many good applications of this type of research but I can also see it going very wrong.
The best panties in the whole world.
Since they are modified by pigs each year, will this have an effect on cold viruses?? (Most things are not as simple as they first appear.)
Submission and respect aren't the same thing. Lack of submission may not be the appropriate term, but neither is lack of respect.
For some bbq baby-back ribs?
"The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old......They literally know nothing." - Ben Rhodes
We've been creating mice with human immune systems for probably decades now. Heck, you can even order them from commercial suppliers:
https://www.jax.org/jax-mice-a...
Put my fist through my alarm clock with its ding-dong death inside my ear. - The Blackjacks.
http://beautifuldecay.com/2013...
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
New breed of muslims.
Well, it smelled and acted like a pig-man hybrid anyway
The scourges passed the world shrinks,
For a long time peace and populated lands:
One will travel safely by air, land, sea and wave,
Then the wars stirred up anew. (C I â" 63)
They will think they have seen the Sun at night
When they will see the pig half-man:
Noise, song, battle, fighting in the sky perceived,
And one will hear brute beasts talking. (C I â" 64)
I think Rosie O'Donnel's parents created the first Human-Pig hybrid...
and what science has done with bacon.
My ism, it's full of beliefs.
So what you're saying is Trump is more diverse than Obummer? Cool.
Train keeps going.
Almost every President seems to be worse than the one before him... ... I'm not sure how we're going to trump Trump though. Kanye West 2020? Charlie Sheen 2024? Satan 2028?
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
"The work inevitably raises the spectre of intelligent animals" -- what 'spectre'? Creating a new species with human-level intelligence would be the greatest feat mankind has ever accomplished, bar none. It's a big deal, sure, and as such could go super-wrong, but it doesn't have to. If it went right, we could have a real-world Redwall Abbey, with Jacques-esque Moles! That said, the "...with humanised brains" part is a bit disturbing, depending on how much human gets into the new species; we're not exactly a sterling role model for new sapient life.
We humans are generally too not ready for this hi-tech stuff.
Consider this example: Africanized bees. Theye were inadvertently released into the wild and now have taken lives here in the USA.
Those bees continue to migrate further north and pose a threat to an ever increasing population.
Add to this one example the fact that an obvious unqualified Trump made it to being a presidential candidate (let alone actually now in office), and it is quite evident that we humans are akin to an ape with a machine gun!
I say we first educate the masses. Then we can let the few intelligent educated persons manage such amazing research.
First, we need to have more humans actually recognize what makes a qualified leader; rather than THINK they know and we all end up suffering from the mistake once it all blows-up in (their) faces.
Self-importance and self-indulgence is the root of ALL evil.