By Sharon K. Gilbert
Now I’ve heard everything. Not in a million years, did I ever expect to read a story like the one linked below. Understand, this IS Friday the 13th, so one has to expect ‘high weirdness’, but an Elvis Mouse? I’m not kidding. An Elvis Presley branded mouse.
If you’re picturing a cute lab critter with a ducktail hairdo, you’re only skirting the possibilities. We’re talking genes, blue suede shoe genes, ostensibly from an hair once grown by the late Elvis Aron Presley.
Here’s how:
First of all, he browsed eBay for a sample of Elvis’ hair which was bought for the bargain price of $22.
He then tracked down genetic services online – one company called Genetrack Biolabs, who sequenced DNA from the hair sample and inGenious Targeting Laboratory, who produce cloned mice with made-to-order genetic codes.
The gene was isolated from a hair that someone on eBay claimed was from Elvis? Can you spell gullible? I knew you could. Assuming this young ‘inventor’ is telling the truth, then he is very, very ‘trusting’.
Now, while this scenario may sound laughable, I assure you that this is deadly serious. Home based businesses (also called ‘cottage’ industries) used to refer to housewives earning a little butter and egg money by sewing, etc. But in our modern age, we have nothing less than home-based laboratories. Now, anyone with an imagination and a credit card can purchase gene sequencers, vials of nitrogenous bases, and even PCR machines. If you have enough money you can build a lab in your garage or basement and mix and match to your heart’s content. Frankenstein is a schlep compared to this new breed of ‘scientists’.
The Elvis mouse might sound cute, but the next young Frankenstein wannabe might be mixing diseases into his lab mice. Once we worried about secret government labs producing dangerous new bioweapons. Today, we must worry about the man next door. The next plague may be created in a cul de sac.
Read the entire news report: Has Elvis left the building… and returned as a test tube mouse? | Mail Online.
And now, just for some fun, here’s a YouTube video that I found. Elvis singing in Spanish? Maybe a gene or two got crossed. 🙂
