Tag: Insects

Genetically altered zebrafish detect pollution

    Researcher are still in the
infancy-state of genetic engineering, but the advances they are making
and future technologies that might be possible are simply amazing. This
week news arrived that University of Cincinnati researchers managed to
insert a firefly gene that causes the insects to light up into the DNA
of zebrafish. The zebrafish light up when they are exposed to PCBs.

    “These fish are much more sensitive
than current water testing systems that can detect concentrations of PCBs,” Dr. Daniel Nebert, a University of Cincinnati researcher, said.

    Aside from their sensitivity,
using zebrafish could be both cheaper and quicker for testing PCB levels
in water samples than conventional methods. Apparently the fish are not
harmed and can be used repeatedly since they will stop glowing after a
sufficient time spent away from PCB-contaminated water.

    A demonstration project to
use the zebrafish at Lake Harsha, Ohio, is currently in the planning stages.
Lake water will be pumped into tanks holding the genetically modified
zebrafish as early as this spring.

Reference:

“Researchers use genetically altered zebrafish as toxin detectors.” The
Associated Press, January 6, 2000.

Insect Rights?

Still don’t think that animal rights philosophy puts one on the slippery slope
to granting rights to just about everything that moves? Then check out
Joanne E. Lauck and Brian L. Crissey’s The Voice of the Infinite in
the Small : Revisioning the Insect-Human Connection. This little ditty
attempts to smash the myths in Western culture about insects and seeks
to find a new more compassionate and positive relationship between humans
and insects. As one reviewer summed up Lauck’s vision:

The Voice of the Infinite in the Small is an invitation
to experience Oneness, not only with those creatures we find beautiful,
but with those that invoke our deepest fears. Once we experience that
unity, Lauck explains, our sense of self will expand and we will be able
to rediscover ourselves as part of every ecosystem and every creature
on Earth. Then we may dare to ask what part of ourselves is that we hate
and seek to eradicate? [when we, for example, try to kill pests that attack
crops]

Soon I imagine we will see groups raiding the folks who make bug zappers.