Super cows and glow in the dark pigs...interesting.

www.dailymail.co.uk...

Channel 4 is to unveil a shocking menagerie of genetically modified animals in a new show revealing the frightening leaps technology has taken.

Among the bizarre engineered creatures from around the world is a giant cow, three times the size of ordinary cattle, reared without fat to produce gallons of milk.

But the so-called Belgian Blue - pictured here - is perhaps the least disturbing of the creatures to be shown in the three-part series Channel 4 Farm this winter. There are also glow-inthedark pigs and goats which produce spider's silk.

TV scientist Olivia Judson and journalist Giles Coren travel the world to visit the places where these animals are now being reared. There is even a genuine "allotment" of growing human noses.

Channel 4 director of television Kevin Lygo said: "This is an exciting science series about genetic modification. Everything on the Channel 4 Farm is real. You may think these creatures are the future but they are the reality, living right now.

Imagine trying to squeeze the milk out...it be like shooting out of a firehose.



As for pigs, at least you won't lose them in the night.

[edit on 2-11-2006 by deltaboy]

That cow is ridiculously huge! I like how he as a leash on it, pretending he'll be able to pull back and stop it if it starts running. Anyway, I couldn't cite any specific reasons at all, but there's something that makes me very uneasy about us consuming products from these genetically engineered or altered animals.

i thought more people knew about the Spider silk producing goats. The silk is what we use to make bullet proof vests.

Originally posted by mindbeyondreality
The silk is what we use to make bullet proof vests.

Got some info to back that up?

The Belgian Blue breed of cattle has been around for quite sometime and I believe that the breed is the result of common breeding techniques used for centuries.

Google Search

More accurately research is being done into producing a viable artificial version of the spider silk to some time in the future replace standard (and frankly pretty rubbish) bullet resistant vests.

It should be noted that spider silk is the strongest naturally occuring fibre known to man, 30 times stronger comparitively to Kevlar. Wikipedia article

And now the Goat source www.howstuffworks.com...

Here you'll see exactly why spider silk is so amazing www.xs4all.nl...


[edit on 5-11-2006 by Shadow88]

Originally posted by greatpiino
That cow is ridiculously huge! I like how he as a leash on it, pretending he'll be able to pull back and stop it if it starts running.

It's more of a mind control thing for the cow. Circus elephants used to be pinned to the ground with small metal stakes. Because they'd been restrained that way since childhood, they never try when they get bigger. Animals often don't know thier own strength.

I'm still curious as to see what the use of glow in the dark pig could possibly be. I know that back in the day they used to set a pig on fire to freak out war elephants, but I doubt we can halt a tank with a glow in the dark pig.

I wonder what the prototypes looked like. If I remember correctly, the glow in the dark pigs were made with some genetic material of from a fish, or squid, or something like that. Maybe the prototypes had freaky appendages, or vestigial aquatic organs or something like that.

Originally posted by Rasobasi420
I'm still curious as to see what the use of glow in the dark pig could possibly be.

Here is an interesting article about flourescent pigs, their origin and supposed potential.

abcnews.go.com...

[edit on 2006/11/6 by GradyPhilpott]