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stametseater

Oh sweet, more man-made horrors beyond my comprehension.

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This sounds like the cutest possible man-made horror.

I'm putting these little guys in my D&D game.

Searched for an article with pics

Man made horror, not very cute, can confirm

Have a link handy?

https://www.popsci.com/science/antler-mice-stem-cell/

+1 for instant regrets

"Mouse with antlers" would be better described as "mouse with cancerous growth on head with some antler like traits".

You are ... very much correct, those pictures are no fun at all.

I'm glad I drew my own version before googling those: https://i.imgur.com/YMXTnX0.png

The actual results of the experiment are not what the title would lead one to believe.

I was reminded of the Hyperion Cantos, where "biosculpting" is a thing and the reformed party animal had turned himself first into a satyr, and then back into standard human.

A surgeon named “Graumann Hackett” did it for Silenus, IIRC.

It's weird how this phrase has come to mean "potentially vaguely unethical"

> "Such a treatment could raise ethical concerns about the cross-species implantation of cells, as well as the significant safety trials that would be required"

Yes the significant ethical concerns of deer antlers... what?

We need to just accelerate (in general; I don't have many thoughts about deer antlers but don't let this stop you) and not get into another incident spending 14 years "safety testing" golden rice: https://twitter.com/kanzure/status/1636170779447513091

Yes, perhaps we should get the Wuhan lab to go full speed ahead on this. What could go wrong?

Intentionally engineering features that make a pathogen more dangerous (whether or not that's the origin story of SARS-CoV-2) is not the same thing as putting antlers on a mouse. Or even putting antlers on a human.

Electricity is wonderful for lighting our homes, powering our thinking machines, and talking to each other over vast distances using radio. That doesn't mean it's OK for some rent-seeking asshole company to make electric torture devices and hand them out to the cops.

Likewise, genetic engineering can be useful, and fun, and productive, and insightful. It can also be murderous. The former don't per se imply the latter.

Not everything needs to be weaponized. And some things need not to be.

> Not everything needs to be weaponized. And some things need not to be.

And some things need not be done at all.

Could you imagine being a being with human level intelligence but trapped in a pig’s body, because science?

Or The Island of Doctor Moreau as a warning and not a playbook of “things I want to do with my career”.

If it would help me to postpone old age by 200 years, I would gladly accept antlers. It's just bone, so I could always just saw them off if they get in the way

We all grow antlers and nobody works 3 months out of the year during rutting season?

Catastrophizing is very in.

If this were available as a cosmetic enhancement for humans, how many people you think would go for it?

I shudder at the idea of people who put truck nuts on their F150 having access to that kind of technology...

Honestly, the last thing a redneck would ever do is wear antlers during deer season.

Eventually the antler keeps growing until the mouse is more antler than mouse. An antler with a mouse as a tumor.

This is a really expensive and roundabout way to have discovered a better mouse trap.

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