back to article Boffins invent LUMINOUS PIGS again, glow-in-dark bacon sarnies presumably imminent

Chinese scientists have created a pair of glow-in-the-dark pigs which shine with an eery green luminous light. Dr Zhenfang Wu and Dr Zicong Li of the South China Agricultural University injected the porkers' embryos with jellyfish DNA, so they shone when exposed to UVA light. The addition of luminous genetic material does not …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    With a bit of work, these pigs could be a replacement for the current energy-slurping streetlights. Now that would be a big leap forward for renewable energy!

    1. Fred Flintstone Gold badge

      Meh - you'll have to get them to fly first..

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        they already can fly, police helicopters anyone??

      2. Roger Varley

        All pigs can fly. It's just a matter of calculating the trajectory and then applying sufficient impetus.

        1. HMB

          It's not a launchpad, it's an impetus applicator... interesting. :)

  2. Will Godfrey Silver badge
    Happy

    Gives a whole new meaning to having a warm glow inside.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Mushroom

    "Taiwanese scientists were the first to make pigs glow."

    I always thought it was those guys at chernobyl all the way back in 1986...

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: "Taiwanese scientists were the first to make pigs glow."

      re " Taiwanese scientists were the first to make pigs glow." I always thought it was those guys at chernobyl all the way back in 1986..."

      I think British Scientists did it back in the 1950s at Windscale. Plus all the fish in the Irish Sea glowed due to them, and the ReadyBrek kids must have been from a Cumbrian School.

  4. Anonymous Dutch Coward
    Coat

    Luminous light

    What will they think up next?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Luminous light

      maybe an expedition to find the land where the Jumblies live ....

  5. Simon Harris

    hurrah

    Bacon sarnies you can find in the dark.

    Nomnomnom.

  6. Steve Knox
    Coat

    Old Hat

    I remember certain Dr. Seuss having success making not just pigs but chickens glow green...

  7. Suricou Raven

    Bah

    It's just plain old photoluminescence - the pigs don't glow unless you shine UV light on them. That's been done already for fish. I'll be impressed when they can manage true bioluminescence. There could be a lot of money in the pet market for those, plus sticking it in plants would make a handy form of emergency illumnination. Imagine loading up a lawn with it.

    Still a useful research tool though, and practice for more useful gene insertions.

  8. Zebo-the-Fat

    Needed

    What is needed is a way to make pigs glow with infra red, them we could have self cooking bacon!

  9. trenchfoot
    Coat

    Pigs! (or it didn't happen)

    1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge

      You want pigs? Too bad, here is some PETA.

  10. ElReg!comments!Pierre

    Re: "could one day be used to inject useful DNA into human embryos"

    Calm down lad, it's not what the man suggested, at all. He was talking about using the pigs as enzyme-making factories, the enzymes being then administered to human. It's a long way from gene therapy.

    Gene therapy has been famously tested in cystic fibrosis, a very simple autosomal monogenic disease, and it failed for reasons that are still being investigated. Congenital haemophilia is a wholly more complicated beast, being gonosomal (single-allele in men, that means trouble) and very subtle (if you over-correct, you clog the blood vessels -> death, most likely antenatal).

    So, no DNA injection in human embryo yet for haemophilia; "just" medicine-producing pigs.

  11. Tachikoma
    Coat

    I can imagine this being popular with ravers, just imagine popping a pig pill and glowing under the blacklights!

    Yeah mine is the coat with the Easy Groove tape and a whistle in the pocket

  12. msknight
    Coat

    Pointless

    They're going to have to spend the millions on the factories anyway in order to cater for the people who have religious objections to being within a barge pole's distance from anything to do with one sacred or forbidden animal or another.

  13. Chris G

    Hmmm Pigs For Street Lights?

    You won't catch me walking down the pavement with pig tied to the top of every pole.

    Glowing in the dark is nothing special; in the seventies I worked at Windscale for a bit, I haven't needed a torch/flashlight ever since

    1. Simon Harris

      Re: Hmmm Pigs For Street Lights?

      @Chris G

      Windscale? Isn't that where all the ReadyBrek kids came from?

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    A bit late

    The Chinese already have glow-in-the-dark bacon, and you dont need a UV light either; it is caused by a type of bacteria found growing on contaminated bacon joints in Singapore and Hong Kong last year.

    If I can find a link to the original news story I will post it later.

  15. Paul Wells
    FAIL

    Everyone loses track of the date at the start of the year

    The Beeb story that's linked to is dated Thursday, 12 January 2006.

  16. Old Handle
    Thumb Down

    I'm sick of these supposedly glowing animals that are really only UV fluorescent. Come on boffins, grab some firefly DNA and to it properly.

  17. Holtsmark Silver badge
    Happy

    I have previously had artwork published, but I never expected to see my "flying pig" joke picture published in the noteworthy el Reg!

    The picture used in the link uses a 3d model that I in my former life generated for open source (slow)MMO found at www.worldforge.org combined with a pair of wings. I hacked up that picture in order to convince another contributor that it definitely was the right time for her to release some more artwork.

    Some years ago I noticed that someone had contributed the picture to wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Flying_pig_hell_freezing.jpg , pretending to be the creator. Have never bothered to rectify, but think it is funny to be the creator of the most used "flying pig" image available in the interwebs (says something about the quality of the net doesn't it?).

    some more piggyness:

    http://purple.worldforge.org/~munin/logo/wf_media.jpg

    http://purple.worldforge.org/~munin/models/pig/pig05.jpg

  18. TheRealRoland

    so many possibilities...

    finally, that mash up of Babe and Tron is one step closer to reality...

  19. Dropper

    Glow in the Dark Dogs

    Like I said the first time you gave us the news on GitD pigs.. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/01/12/fluorescent_pig/ ..

    Forget medical research, green bacon or whatever it is they're trying to push onto us.. we want glow in the dark dogs. Most of us want flying cars, many would find amusement owning a gay flamingo.. but a glow in the dark dog would trump those shits that own a PS4, X-Box One and a diamond-encrusted gold iPhone. Yes you might have all the sparkly electronics the world can offer.. but my dog provides emission-free lighting on demand! Plus it's so fucking cool it will never be yesterday's tat.

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