Re: Doogie Mice

Philip Witham (p.j.witham@ieee.org)
Thu, 02 Sep 1999 12:01:52 -0700

At 12:35 PM 9/2/1999 -0400, you wrote:
>There is a kick ass paper in today's issue of the journal "Nature". Joe Z Tsien
>of Princeton University has used genetic engineering to create a mouse with
>greater intelligence than any found on Earth,
it performed consistently and
>considerably better than any other strain in all 6 of the standard intelligence
>tests given to mice.

This is amazing. How could it be that nature didn't select for this? So simple, so apparently effective, there must be a down side, like - the brilliant mouse decides that having children would pinch her lifestyle. Mutation disappears from gene pool.

Or: Brilliant mouse suddenly realizes "Oh my! I'm just a little rodent eating seeds down in the grass! The universe is so immense compared to me! I am nothing!" (mouse is so awestruck it forgets to eat. Mutation disappears from gene pool.)

-PW