Imagine that mad scientists defied nature and violated the barriers between species. They injected human DNA into non-human creatures, altering their genomes into chimeras–unnatural fusions of man and beast. The goal of the scientists was to enslave these creatures, to exploit their cellular machinery for human gain. The creatures began to produce human proteins, so many of them that they become sick, in some cases even dying. The scientists harvest the proteins, and then, breaching the sacred barrier between species yet again, people injected the unnatural molecules into their own bodies.
Author: Lori Jia
Robin writes, “I recently graduated from Bard College. My senior thesis in biology used zebrafish as a model organism, and in honor of this and the three previous years I spent working with this animal, I got a tattoo of one. He’s a male, as one can tell by the all green fins and the slim belly.”
Click here to go to the full Science Tattoo Emporium.
Originally published June 8, 2008. Copyright 2008 Carl Zimmer.
Click here to go to the full Science Tattoo Emporium.
Originally published June 7, 2008. Copyright 2008 Carl Zimmer.
Tony writes, “While my hobby lies with spiders (mainly theraphosids) and other arachnids, scorpions also have some attraction for me as well. When I found a tattoo ink that fluoresces under blacklight like a scorpion does, well it seemed to make for a perfect tattoo!”
Click here to go to the full Science Tattoo Emporium.
Originally published June 6, 2008. Copyright 2008 Carl Zimmer.
I am literally only 12 pages in, yet Zimmer has already managed to make me catch my breath, clutch the book to my chest, and feel my eyes get a little moist from the emotional impact of it all.
I wonder what a couple hundred more pages will do…
Originally published June 6, 2008. Copyright 2008 Carl Zimmer.