Scientists create fearless Mice

Removing the ability to smell danger lets rodents befriend natural enemies, reports Roger Highfield in London Mice befriended their mortal enemies, cats, after scientists removed their ability to smell danger.

Researchers pinpointed nerve cells in mouse brains that trigger fear responses and were able to turn them off using genetic engineering.

The result of their remarkable experiment is the stuff of nightmares for fans of the classic cat and mouse cartoon television series Tom and Jerry -- rodents that show no sign of anxiety or panic when they smell cats.

Link

I find this interesting. A mouse that would be easily caught by rodent control, like cats. It makes one wonder, if released into areas, would all mice end up like this at one point? Fearless and becoming easy snacks for cats, by simply taking away their natural radar.

What if something like this was done to humans, large city areas could see great change over hundreds of years.

Your thoughts?

reply to post by Cyprex


I read that news elsewhere, and they say that the rats can still learn fear through the regular conditioning processes. So I don't think they'd all end up as snacks (or more accurately, furry little living playthings) for cats.

Here's the link to the other article:

Kitten-cuddling mice explain the science of smell

Intresting,

The mice were able to detect these smells using other olfactory cells but, lacking the key pathway that triggered a "fear" warning to the brain, were quite undeterred by the presence of a cat or acids and other dangerous compounds.

I wonder if they can make Decon work on rats again by changing the rats

can you imagine if they were terrified, but the scientists actually turned off their ability to back down instead ?

what a nightmare


that would make a good sci-fi short story though

what would be interesting is if 'fear' in rats comes to be proven as what triggers the cats 'smell' in the brain to want to attack the rat to begin with.

Now that would have huge implications.

Peace

dalen

We're next.
They are testing this on mice for a reason. It will be used on soldiers and all the like.

But I wonder if they do this to a wild animal like a snake, would it still attack?
Most wild animals attack outta fear so it would be a way to harmonize with them if need be.

Good point..and why are they messing with mice in this way in the first place? There must be something more useful these Scientists can do, right? IMO this is more like playing god than making clone.

To syrinx: that would be really scary. That or making the mice aggressive toward human smells, and having them infected with something...

I don't see why they cant do this.

[edit on 11/9/07 by Cyprex]

As for the smell of fear, yeah sorry about that, it was me!

What about Sharks! They have by my reconing just about the most powerful sense of smell on the planet.

Or would this be a deleted scene from Deep Blue Sea!

MonKey

what if the aganda was not to remove fear from people, but reverse the thing and find out how to trigger fear in people.....

thoose in fear are easy to control...

reply to post by Bluess


Hehe I think they have, and that thing would be death. The each day news will show you at least new 2 ways you may die, tonight at 11.