This Mouse Knows How one can Tweet [Science]

I’m not even talking about Twitter. Due to the superb world of genetic engineering (that is the greatest thing ever), this mouse not squeaks . It tweets. Yes, like a bird.

The tweeting ability of the mouse actually passed off by chance. Kind of. As AFP tells it, scientists at the University of Osaka were working on a study to work out how genetic mutation facilitates evolution. So after breeding genetically modified mice that were liable to copy DNA wrong, they happened upon one mouse that may unexpectedly tweet. They’ve since bred over a hundred of these ” singing mice.”

Scientists are especially intrigued by this, because tweeting among birds functions as a low-level language for them. In order that they believe these noises from the tweeting mouse aren’t entirely as random as the standard squeak. And they’re also curious how it’s going to affect normal, non- tweeting mice exposed to these sounds.

And while I will be able to generally get down with all this, I do have one concern about all this genetic modifying happening: between tweeting and having two dads , the following generation of mice are going to have some serious identity crises and a costly therapy bill. [ AFP via PopSci ]

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This post is tagged: evolution, genetic engineering, genetic mutation, identity crises, level language, scientists, therapy bill