Article: Naked Mole Rat Genome May Hold Key to Long Life

[n2doc]

Jennifer Welsh, LiveScience Staff WriterDate: 12 October 2011 Time: 01:02 PM ET




The newly deciphered genome of the hairless, underground-dwelling, long-lived and cancer-resistant naked mole rat could help researchers unravel the creature's secrets, and may help improve human health along the way.

"They are very odd, they are really freaky and they have a lot of really interesting specializations," study researcher and naked mole rat enthusiast Thomas Park, of the University of Illinois at Chicago, told LiveScience. "We are working to understand how they come to have these very interesting characteristics. Having the genome gives us a whole new armory of ways in which we can approach this."

The genome could hold the clues to deciphering the naked mole rat's unique life traits, behaviors and social characteristics. Using this information, scientists can learn more about evolution and could even help design better treatments for human disease, such as stroke and cancer, or even possibly find the fountain of youth.
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http://www.livescience.com/16516-naked-mole-rat-genome-longevity.html

[DirkGently]

1. As I always say, "You've got to love the naked mole rat. "

[mike_c]

2. that one's a beauty, too....

:rofl:

Great social models as well, but boy oh boy are they strange looking!

[WheelWalker]

3. Something

only a mother could love?

[kat6594]

8. Most definitely

[DirkGently]

4. Our local paper based an April Fool's hoax on these little fellas.

Relying on the fact that most people don't know what they are and have an "Egad, what IS that?" reaction, they ran a front-page article in the magazine section (might have been a Sunday?) about the "Tasmanian mock walrus," allegedly a newly imported creature from Australia that was new rage in household pets. "Intelligent, affectionate, and voracious hunters of the common cockroach." Or something like that. Many wrote in asking where to get one ho ho ho.


:)

[GreenPartyVoter]

5. Seriously, does no one watch "Kim Possible?"

[DirkGently]

6. Kimpossibly?

Plus, I think this was a little before Kim's time.

http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/photos/mockwalrus.html

The story described a creature known as the Tasmanian Mock Walrus (TMW) that had recently been introduced to Florida from Tasmania. It was described as a "whiskered, four-inch-long creature, which purrs like a cat and gets around efficiently on four tiny paws." More remarkably, the creature had the mild temperament of a hamster, could be trained to use a litter box, and ate cockroaches. One TMW could eliminate a house of its roach infestation.

[GreenPartyVoter]

7. Oh yes. A bit early, then.