Andart

Cheers for more color in Mammalia!

Practical Ethics: Shining monkey, sadistic conclusion? - today I blogged about the transgenic monkeys with germline heritable fluorescence, or rather, whether it is OK to create research animals with disease genes. This can (if one is a utilitarian) tie in with some of the conundrum's of population ethics.

I think we need more colourful mammals. I'm sure we can steal the genes producing gorgeous lizard pteridines and carotenoids. The real challenge is to get the intense colours or iridescence from nanostructures we see in birds.