Comments on: Genetically-modified mouse to sniff out landmines

By: Brad Bell

Brad Bell — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 16:49:00 +0000

The landmine-sensitive flowers that had blossoms that turned a different colour in the vicinity of bombs planted below their roots were a far more elegant solution than torturing mice. The flowers solution makes mice look like overkill. Too complicated. Too much overhead. Sadly, I learn the flowers program has been discontinued for business reasons.
http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/009012.html

By: Laurie

Laurie — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 21:06:00 +0000

Isn’t this a kind of slavery? What world is this that we would genetically modify animals rather than morally modify ourselves? Can we genetically modify humans to stop creating and and planting landmines?

By: customex

customex — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 20:50:00 +0000

So if they know where to let the mouse go, then they already know where the mine is, or else they need someone to track and follow the mouse. Then what happens if there is more than one mine? More mice that stand still when they find a mine? Must be parts of the idea/story untold. Sounds like great cartoon material though.

By: Vicki

Vicki — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 20:10:00 +0000

They’ve been doing this for a while now with African rats: http://www.apopo.org/

By: invictus

invictus — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 19:48:00 +0000

“So, professor, this mouse that’s having continuous seizures while within scent range of the TNT… Who goes in to take it back to the lab?”

By: Nash Rambler

Nash Rambler — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 19:13:00 +0000

What we need here are some tiny white jumpers with “DM” emblazoned on the front. Very small eyepatches. Also genetically modified, bumbling bespectle’d hamster sidekicks.

By: Boundegar

Boundegar — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 19:02:00 +0000

It may be time to update Stuart Little.

By: gypsyspacemuffin

gypsyspacemuffin — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 18:34:00 +0000

I couldn’t agree more. And if this is what the mouse has been trained/genetically altered for, then it’s assumed that it will be repeatedly and frequently sent into the field for work. Well, until it eventually dies from the physical strain.
I mean, I know that humans using animal sentinels is hardly a new thing: the most obvious example would be canaries used to test air quality in the tunnels of mines.

But I still think it’s a pretty fucked up practice. Especially when you are literally tinkering with a creature’s genes to make it intolerant–and to such a volatile degree–of a substance that you are regularly sending it into contact with.

By: angusm

angusm — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 17:32:00 +0000

“Pinky – are you pondering what I’m pondering?”
“I think so, Brain … but why is it called a ‘landmine’? Wouldn’t it be a ‘landyours’ if you saw it first?”

By: corydodt

corydodt — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 17:24:00 +0000

“The mouse itself would be safe from the landmine, since it would be too small to trigger an explosion”

I may be alone in thinking the seizures are actually a little crueler than blowing the mouse up.

By: welcomeabored

welcomeabored — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 17:18:00 +0000

One does wonder at the possible success of this research given the subtleties in detection that must be worked out, like the word ‘seizures’.

Then there’s the possibility of false positives:

‘However, developing a GM mouse that could detect them would not be a trivial task – researchers would first have to identify the neurons in the mouse’s olfactory bulb that detected the TB odour in question (from the millions of possibilities in the mouse’s nose) and then identify and modify the correct parts of the genome to create their desired biological sensor.’

Still, if one little mousie can narrow the scope of the search for hidden bombs, and save thousands yearly from death and mutilation when they step on landmines, I sincerely hope these researchers succeed.