Bird-Flu Resistant Chicken (GMOs)

Bird-Flu Resistant Chicken

The scientists have successfully developed genetically modified (transgenic) chickens that do not transmit avian influenza virus to other chickens with which they are in contact. This genetic modification has the potential to stop bird flu outbreaks spreading within poultry flocks. This would not only protect the health of domestic poultry but could also reduce the risk of bird flu epidemics leading to new flu virus epidemics in the human population.

What is GMOs

What is GMOs ?

Genetically Modified Organisms

GMOs (or “genetically modified organisms”) are organisms whose genetic material has been artificially manipulated in a laboratory through genetic engineering, or GE. This relatively new science creates unstable combinations of plant, animal, bacteria and viral genes that do not occur in nature or through traditional crossbreeding methods.

What is genetic engineering?

Genetic engineering is the process of manually adding new DNA to an organism. The goal is to add one or more new traits that are not already found in that organism. Examples of genetically engineered (transgenic) organisms currently on the market include plants with resistance to some insects, plants that can tolerate herbicides, and crops with modified oil content.

Deep-Sea Creature Album (Predatory tunicate)

PHOTOGRAPH From monterey bay aquarium

Predatory tunicate

Predatory tunicates live anchored along the deep sea canyon walls and seafloor, waiting for tiny animals to drift or swim into their cavernous hoods.
If you've ever seen a Venus flytrap capture an insect, you have a clue as to how a predatory tunicate eats. Its mouthlike hood is quick to close when a small animal drifts inside. Once the tunicate catches a meal, it keeps its trap shut until it's ready to eat again.

Deep-Sea Creature Album (Phronima)

                                                                         PHOTOGRAPH BY  DAVID SHALE

Phronima

In an ironic strategy for survival, a tiny shrimplike creature called an amphipod shows everything it has, inside and out, in an attempt to disappear.

The unusual animal, called Phronima, is one of the many strange species recently found on an expedition to a deep-sea mountain range in the North Atlantic.

Many small deep-sea creatures are transparent, or nearly so, to better camouflage themselves in their murky surroundings, scientists say.

Deep-Sea Creature Album (Snipe eels)

PHOTOGRAPH BY DANTE FENOLIO

Snipe eels

Snipe eels have birdlike beaks with curving tips. Their beaks are covered with tiny, hooked teeth—the eels sweep their beaks through the water to entangle the antennae of tasty shrimp.

Deep-Sea Creature Album (Pacific Viperfish)

PHOTOGRAPH BY DAVID WROBEL, SEAPICS

Pacific Viperfish

The Pacific viperfish has jagged, needlelike teeth so outsized it can't close its mouth. These deep-sea demons reach only about 8 inches (25 centimeters) long. They troll the depths up to 13,000 feet (4,400 meters) below, luring prey with bioluminescent photophores on their bellies.

Deep-Sea Creature Album (Vampire Squid)

PHOTOGRAPH BY KIM REISENBICHLER, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

Vampire Squid

Vampire squid is an apt name for a creature that lurks in the lightless depths of the ocean. Comfortable at 10,000 feet (3,000 meters) below the surface, these diminutive cephalopods navigate the blackness with eyes that are proportionately the largest of any animal on Earth. The species gets its name from its dark, webbed arms, which it can draw over itself like a cloak. It occupies the mesopelagic and bathypelagic regions of temperate and tropical world oceans. The animal's physiology has adapted to enable it to live at the very low oxygen levels found within the oxygen minimum layers of these regions.