Geneticist Wants to Create “Mickey Mouse!”

Okaaay! This is weird on so many levels! A scientist in Japan is has made a mouse that tweets like a bird. He says near the end of the article: “Uchimura dreams of further “evolution” of mice through genetic engineering. ‘I know it’s a long shot and people would say it’s ‘too absurd’… but I’m doing this with hopes of making a Mickey Mouse some day,’ he said.” Yeah. Just what we need, a genetically modified mouse that speaks like Mickey Mouse! Anybody else think this is just too weird!?!?

‘SINGING MOUSE’ MADE WITH GENETIC MODIFICATION

“Japanese scientists said Tuesday they had produced a mouse that tweets like a bird in a genetically engineered “evolution” which they hope will shed light on the origins of human language.

A team of researchers at the University of Osaka created the animal in their “Evolved Mouse Project,” in which they use genetically modified mice that are prone to miscopying DNA and thus to mutations.

‘Mutations are the driving force of evolution. We have cross-bred the genetically modified mice for generations to see what would happen,’ lead researcher Arikuni Uchimura said.

‘We checked the newly born mice one by one… One day we found a mouse that was singing like a bird,’ he said, noting that the ‘singing mouse’ was born by chance but that the trait will be passed on to future generations.”

Here is the YouTube link to hear the “Singing Mouse”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLu37VvCozw