Posted on 05/20/2022 12:24:32 PM PDT by BenLurkin
Researchers at Georgia State University may have published the scientific understatement of the year when saying that their CRISPR experiment with hamsters “found that the biology behind social behavior may be more complex than previously thought.”
Using the revolutionary gene editing tech, the GSU neuroscience team discovered that knocking out a receptor of vasopressin — a hormone associated with aggression, communication, and social bonding in both humans and hamsters — instead seemed to supercharge the cute rodents’ worst instincts.
The GSU team was surprised to find that their attempts to turn down the aggression in the gene-hacked hamsters made them both more aggressive and more social — a nightmarish-sounding scenario that evokes Gremlin-esque playground bullies.
These “counterintuitive” findings have suggested “a startling conclusion,” Albers said in the statement — that neural receptors and the behaviors with which they’re associated may not be able to be turned on and off individually, and that attempts to do so may be fraught.
(Excerpt) Read more at futurism.com ...
Here come the genetically-altered human Super Soldiers.
Aggression is necessary to the development of social hierarchies, and the development of social hierarchies is a check against aggression. They are the yin and yang of a feedback cycle that need each other to properly function, not one being “good” and the other being “bad”.
I hope this doesn’t create a new market for Murder-Hamsters akin to fighting fish or Roosters. “Place your bets!”
Poor little animals. This is clearly animal abuse, call the SPCA.
I’m not kidding. My kids had hamsters as pets and they were adorable, friendly, and easy to care for.
I don’t know, my brother in law told me a tale of when he was a kid how he got two hamsters. Nobody told the family that they should be caged apart because they are territorial and apparently overnight they had a turf war. He said one of them was torn to pieces, traumatized to this day. So yes, they can appear lovable, but the propensity to violence is always right there, under the surface waiting for the right stimuli.
Trust the science!
Till those very hamsters pounce on your kids faces and chew their eyes out then come after you..
LOL. Henrietta liked to sit on my lap while I was at my desk. Cuddly girl.
She did live in a huge cage in my kid’s room most of the time.
Back in the day, late 60’s I got a Male hamster and going home got loose in the car. Finally found it a day later, anyway somehow I wound up with a female and before I knew it had like 20 of those things,lol
Wait, what? Gene Hackman is a hamster?
Attila da Hamster!!
When does someone get the idea of using this to make super aggressive soldiers?
Ok that actually made me laugh out loud!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.