Look Mom, I made a stingray out of rats.

Williebee · Jul 7, 2016

The new, clear leader of creepiest thing I've seen all year.

The swimming stingray (made out of rat cells) robot.

"Roughly speaking, we made this thing with a pinch of rat cardiac cells, a pinch of breast implant, and a pinch of gold. That pretty much sums it up, except for the genetic engineering," says Kit Parker, the bio-engineer at Harvard who led the team that developed the strange robot.

Oh, and they believe it to be biological life form.

yay.

Alessandra Kelley · Jul 7, 2016

Jaw drop smiley.

Cowering smiley.

Augh.

That is fascinating and ingenious and somehow deeply disturbing.

Williebee · Jul 7, 2016

Alessandra Kelley said:
That is fascinating and ingenious and somehow deeply disturbing.

Me too, in that order.

Helix · Jul 7, 2016

"We turned a rat into a light guided stingray..."

They made some rat cardiac muscle cells react to a certain wavelength of light and packed them into a stingray-shaped casing. That's not the same thing. They could, at least, have used some muscle cells that don't spontaneously contract.

Hell, all they need to know is that this is the coolest thing they're going to see all year."

Juno is orbiting Jupiter. That's the coolest thing I've seen all year and I say this as a zoologist.

William Haskins · Jul 7, 2016

yes, but can it love?

Beachgirl · Jul 7, 2016

I have no words.

And for a writer, that's just not right.

robeiae · Jul 7, 2016

Well, at least we have a decent VP nominee now.

Williebee · Jul 7, 2016

Helix said:
Juno is orbiting Jupiter. That's the coolest thing I've seen all year

+1

Haggis · Jul 7, 2016

robeiae said:
Well, at least we have a decent VP nominee now.

+1

robeiae · Jul 7, 2016

Williebee said:
+1

Haggis said:
+1

2

Zoombie · Jul 7, 2016

I think it's neat!

Albedo · Jul 7, 2016

Now give it some thinkmeats.

Tasty, tasty thinkmeats.

Introversion · Jul 8, 2016

robeiae said:
Well, at least we have a decent VP nominee now.

But has it found Jesus yet? Need to know.

regdog · Jul 8, 2016

It's a pretty neat looking pseudo-stringray

feyngirl · Jul 8, 2016

This is fun but it really isn't a new biological life form. You could take any heart (including human), put it through a blender to separate the cells, plate the cells down and they would spontaneously contract. Researchers pretty often grow these squid-ring type structures out of cardiac tissue to measure how strong the contraction is. It lets you see whether genetic errors in encoding proteins actually change how the cells behave. The protein that causes the contraction (titin) is so huge that you can have a lot of encoding errors that don't seem to change its function at all.

Teinz · Jul 8, 2016

regdog said:
It's a pretty neat looking pseudo-stringray

That Fredickson Fish of yours is the next thing they're gonna tackle. We'll see how you like that!

SomethingOrOther · Jul 8, 2016

regdog said:
It's a pretty neat looking pseudo-stringray

Your avatar is very scary. :chair

CassandraW · Jul 8, 2016

meh, I've dated worse. is it single?

regdog · Jul 8, 2016

Teinz said:
That Fredickson Fish of yours is the next thing they're gonna tackle. We'll see how you like that!

Hey, back away from the Fredrickson fish :e2chain:

SomethingOrOther said:
Your avatar is very scary.

Really? I could have been shmooed into something truly horrible, like a battery. So I consider this a win.

Haggis · Jul 8, 2016

CassandraW said:
meh, I've dated worse. is it single?

Like the amoeba, it subdivides exponentially.

CassandraW · Jul 8, 2016

Haggis said:
Like the amoeba, it subdivides exponentially.

damn it. just like all my other dates.

Diana Hignutt · Jul 8, 2016

Beachgirl said:
I have no words.

And for a writer, that's just not right.

No, I think with some editing, you nailed it.

Look Mom, I made a stingray out of rats.

Capeless, wingless, & yet I fly.

Sophipygian

Capeless, wingless, & yet I fly.

socially distancing

poet

Not easily managed

Touch and go

Capeless, wingless, & yet I fly.

Evil, undead Chihuahua

Touch and go

Dragon of the Multiverse

Alex

Pie aren't squared, pie are round!

The Scavengers

Absolute Parsley

Back at it again.

-

The Scavengers

Evil, undead Chihuahua

Very Tired