• Question: Is true that scientists could make mammals glow in the dark?

    Asked by hubbabubba to Mike, Tim, Tom on 5 Jul 2012.
    • Photo: Tim Stephens

      Tim Stephens answered on 5 Jul 2012:

      Hmmm. Good question.
      I know that there are fireflies, angler fish, and plankton that can glow in the dark. I guess that it’s possible to find a gene to do this to mammals. At the moment, I think that they’ve made mice that will fluoresce (glow when exposed to UV light), but not glow by themselves.
      Can you imagine a glowing mouse?

    • Photo: Tom Lister

      Tom Lister answered on 5 Jul 2012:

      There is a thing known as green fluorescent protein (GFP) which is used widely to attatch to genes and trace them through reproduction in biology studies. There is no reason this can;t be used on all animals as far as I understand, and I am sure it has been done to mice etc

      Like Tim said, this makes them flouresce rather than glow. Glowing is usually achieved by allwoing certain (glowing) bacteria to live in a transparent sack on the animal – and I’m sure we could manage to achieve this on a mammal given the inclination (a mouse with a glowing ball on their tail is how I would invisage this)

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