Glow Cat

I noticed the cover of a paper had a story concerning South Korean scientists creating a trio of cats that glow red under ultraviolet light. Apparently, this breakthrough means a great deal to medical science. Creating clone cats that glow in the dark offers medicine the chance to experiment on curing human diseases. Um… because these cats glow. And… um… we all like people who experiment on defenceless animals.

No. I don’t quite get the connection either.

I can see value to the cat loving community, who could have cats that show up in the back garden if you shine a black light in the bushes. Yes, that makes sense to me. However, how this relates to furthering understanding in genetics and how animals, almost entirely unlike us, can assist in developing cures to very human conditions entirely escapes me.

The scientists seem to suggest that if we can create cloned animals with human-like diseases then we can more easily work on the discovery of cures – but, I’m drawn back to the memory of that drug trial where a chimp dosed with a new medicine suffered no ill effects, but humans who used a dose at a fraction of the strength turned inflamed into balloons.

Just for clarity, Mr South Korean Scientist, cats and humans are not the same thing. No even cats with human voices, like Garfield or Custard.