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November 9, 2007
The Mouse That Knows No Fear
"These mice are very happy with cats. They play with cats. But before taking the picture, we had to feed the cat."
So says Hiroshi Sakano of Japan's Sakano Labs, an an interview with Reuters. Sakano's team genetically modified a family of mice to suppress a particular olfactory receptor, which normally converts the mice's sense of smell into messages sent to the brain. They discovered that when the modified mice couldn't pick up certain smells, they lost their fear instinct. Normally, a mouse would run like hell when confronted with a cat, but these mice just want to hang out instead. Hope they have plenty of kibble for the cat, or that mouse is in deep trouble. -andy
Tags: brain | cats | fear | food | genetics | Japan | lunch | mice | receptors | research | safety | Sakano Labs | smell
Posted by acarvin at November 9, 2007 3:15 PM
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