Comments on: cluck cluck cluck BAWK! ROAR!!

cluck cluck cluck BAWK! ROAR!!

Pants! — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 11:03:28 -0800

When and if the dinochicken is created, Horner looks forward to bringing it out on a leash during lectures. (book)

By: gubo

gubo — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 11:22:25 -0800

A turkey would be bigger and more fun. RARR!

By: not_on_display

not_on_display — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 11:24:13 -0800

I look forward to bringing it out on a dish during dinners.

By: Cold Lurkey

Cold Lurkey — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 11:24:26 -0800

Little Jack Horner sat in the corner, tweaking his chicken's genome. He stuck in some regulatory elements and pulled out archaeopteryx, and said "what a good boy I've become!"

By: brundlefly

brundlefly — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 11:25:21 -0800

This is actually the technique the scientists will use in my zombie dinosaur screenplay.

By: netbros

netbros — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 11:26:40 -0800

Horner looks forward to bringing it out on a leash during lectures.

By: jamaro

jamaro — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 11:33:17 -0800

Oooh, ahhh, that's how it always starts. Then later there's running and screaming.

By: DU

DU — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 11:38:53 -0800

"The only reason we're using chickens, instead of some other bird, is that the chicken genome has been mapped, and chickens have already been exhaustively studied," And boy are their wings tired!

By: paisley henosis

paisley henosis — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 11:39:18 -0800

I completely mis-read the post as saying: "When and if the dinochicken is created, Hormel looks forward to bringing it out on a leash during lectures." Anyway, I'm glad they aren't planning on feeding this to us...yet.

By: jimmythefish

jimmythefish — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 11:48:10 -0800

The downside to all of this is that they will get out, multiply, fear nothing, run in packs and eat babies. The only thing that will stop them is a fucking meteor hitting the planet.

By: Cool Papa Bell

Cool Papa Bell — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 12:09:10 -0800

I can predict the manner of my death. "Holy shit! Where'd you get that scar?" "Fucking dinochicken bit me." At which point, I will die laughing.

By: brundlefly

brundlefly — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 12:10:32 -0800

The only thing that will stop them is a fucking meteor hitting the planet. That or looking up during a rain storm.

By: roystgnr

roystgnr — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 12:49:15 -0800

Really? No better references than Crichton yet? I'm sorry, but "they could bring back dinosaurs, which are big and scary" was trite low-hanging fruit. The real applicable science fiction plot here is "they could bring back dinosaurs, which which are mostly small and taste like chicken".

By: louche mustachio

louche mustachio — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 12:53:26 -0800

There is no danger of the proposed dinochicken escaping and populating the world with dinosaurs, Horner said, since only the chicken's development, and not its genome, would have been affected. If the creature did somehow escape and could mate, the result would just be a regular chicken. They always say that before marauding packs of screeching dinochickens start running through the streets, tearing chunks of living flesh from people until they fall to the ground and their still thrashing bodies are rent asunder by frenzied, bloodthirsty Chanteclers and Leghorns.

By: The Light Fantastic

The Light Fantastic — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 13:50:15 -0800

As a child who was tormented by roosters - let me just say that this is a terrible, terrible idea. Bringing back such characteristics as "a tail, teeth and forearms" (and I assume, claws on the ends of the toes on those forearms) will create a being of such pure evil that I shudder to contemplate it. Imagine a vicious, stupid, aggressive chickenasaurus that not only hates you, but can HOLD ON WHILE IT BITES YOUR FACE! You have been warned....

By: jimmythefish

jimmythefish — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 14:24:59 -0800

I completely mis-read the post as saying: "When and if the dinochicken is created, ~~Hormel~~ Homer looks forward to bringing it out on a leash during lectures." Mmmmm....dinochickens.

By: localroger

localroger — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 14:25:12 -0800

Hmmmmm, tastes like velociraptor.

By: DanielDManiel

DanielDManiel — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 14:29:40 -0800

"For millions of years, the Earth trembled under the footsteps of these giant reptiles, such as the fierce Tyrannosaurus Rex (right). This reconstruction reflects the current view that the dinosaurs , for all their size and ferocity, may have been closley related to birds." Yay, Science Made Stupid wins again.

By: amarie

amarie — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 18:36:30 -0800

You can swing by the Bozeman Public Library next week to hear him talk about it, if you're in the area (March 25, 7 pm). I'm sure it will be a fun talk; he gets pretty excited talking about this project.

By: amarie

amarie — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 18:53:20 -0800

Also, I want to someday have a pet chicken with scales instead of feathers. Make it happen, Jack!

By: FormlessOne

FormlessOne — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 18:57:19 -0800

...he gets pretty excited talking about this project. They all do, hence the tunnel visi...er, focus. There's nothing I want more than a Rhode Island Red that with teeth that can run faster than I can, balance well, and leap at me. Alarmism aside, what are the implications of success? Do we reverse-engineer bison? Or bananas? What happens when we figure out the hard way that introns are just bad code - and we hooked into one like a script kiddie running a hack he only partially understands to cause some real harm? Developers have testers to ensure as little bad code as possible doesn't reach the real world. How, exactly, does one unit-test a chicken?

By: Smedleyman

Smedleyman — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 19:17:45 -0800

On the upside, Obama could ride it out and throw candy to people.

By: amarie

amarie — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 19:18:03 -0800

How, exactly, does one unit-test a chicken? The first link mentioned monitoring embryonic development while the chicken is still inside the egg. If something goes wrong, maybe it ends up as dinner. Also, they are manipulating the development of the embryos, not the chicken genomes, and all changes happen on an embryo-by-embryo basis. They will be able to control where these things end up. This project has been ongoing for several years (I first heard about it 3 years ago), so it seems they are, at least, taking it slow.

By: Cool Papa Bell

Cool Papa Bell — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 20:16:11 -0800

How, exactly, does one unit-test a chicken? I'm thinking ... two guys. First guy has a stopwatch, clipboard and pen. Second guy has a 12-gauge shotgun and a belt bag fulla shells.

By: chairface

chairface — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 16:41:42 -0800

I came for the mad science. I was not disappointed.