The alcoholic mice

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Saturday, 19 December 2009 14:01

Apparently, we have much more in common with mice than we'd care to admit, or even think about. According to science, the human and mice genome are between 75 - 90% similar. I'm not a science person, but to me, that seems a rather high percentage. I mean, if a teacher were to offer me a 75% grade without ever having to step into a single class, i'd probably go "woah!".

Ok, that last sentence didn't really make much sense, so back to the human and mice genome. In fact, Dr Lee Silver (A molecular geneticist at Princeton) once said "if you look at the chromosomes themselves, you can make the human genome by breaking the mouse genome into about 200 pieces and then rearranging them."

This is also likely where term lab-rat came about. So they're now studying strains of alcoholic mice, and trying to isolate the gene that makes them prefer alcohol to water. This is absolutely true. There have been experiments where 2 bottles (one containing water, another with alcohol) of liquids were placed in the cage, and the mice consistently went to get absolutely sloshed. Apparently, this strain of mice are often jittery and easily irritated, and the alcohol calms them down. In fact, the amount they drink is our equivalent of downing 2 bottles of whiskey in a day! Damn! These rats sure have issues..

The basic idea these scientists have are that because of the similarity between human and mice genome, if they were to succeed in isolating and curing the mice of certain illnesses and impulses, the same could theoretically apply to humans, and we'd be free of alcoholism, gambling etc vices! (or in the hands of a supervillian, he could do the reverse and make us all slaves to beer, which for some of us, is already reality anway!)

Pull the lens back some more, and we can start to really go for the hardcore stuff, such as understanding mental disorders, drug addiction and aggression, among others.

Of course, with these breakthroughs come the thorny issue of human ethics and abuse. If by manipulating our genes and turning us into passive obedient drones that can't be differentiated, what will it mean for humanity? Will it be an advancement for the human race, or a step closer to mass control?

This is too much to think about for a rainy saturday afternoon.. honey, where's my heineken?!??!