Green Pigoons!

Glowing Pigs? Pigoons!

When I saw the blurbs about the Glowing Pigs from Taiwan, all I could think of were the pigoons from Margaret Artwood's novel Oryx and Crake. If you haven't read that book, go get it now. It's really worth reading, despite one of the gayest book covers I have seen in my life ;P

Artwood defines pigoons as transgenic pigs which carry some human genome, used as living spare organ factories. Let's compare the two, shall we:

The scientists will use the transgenic pigs to study human disease. Because the pig's genetic material is green, it is easy to spot.

So if, for instance, some of its stem cells are injected into another animal, scientists can track how they develop without the need for a biopsy or invasive test.

Artwood on the other hand desctibes pigoons as follows:

The goal of the pigoon project was to grow an assortment of foolproof human-tissue organs ... that would transplant smoothly and avoid rejection, but would also be able to fend off attacks by opportunistic microbes and viruses...

Hmmm... I would say that the Taiwan GloPig would be an early alpha for a full blown pigoon. Just wait a few years. :P

Tags: pigs, glowing pigs, green pigs, oryx and crake, margaret artwood, artwood, crake, oryx, pigoons, taiwan