Scorpion Venom Cabbage
Scientists have recently taken the gene responsible for making poison in scorpion tails and researched ways to combine it with cabbage to limit pesticide use while still preventing caterpillars from damaging cabbage crops. These genetically modified cabbages would produce scorpion poison lethal to caterpillars when they bite leaves — but the toxin is supposedly harmless to humans.
Glow in the Dark Animals
Pigs that glow from inside out sounds pretty ridiculous, but scientists are increasingly using genetically modified animals to help them understand diseases that affect humans, and sometimes just for art. In addition to pigs, cats, dogs, rats, mice sheep, fish, monkeys, and rabbits have been genetically engineered to glow in the dark.
One way the scientists are doing this is by inserting fluorescent proteins, a green protein found in the Aequorea victoria jellyfish, into animals, making them glow. The fluorescent proteins help scientists to monitor the performance of genes that they have altered. The pioneers of this method were even awarded the 2008 Nobel Prize in chemistry for their efforts. Below are nine genetically modified animals that now glow, thanks to science:
