Did you know that bowhead whales can live for 200 years and they rarely get cancer? It’s true. Something in their DNA repairs age-related damage, suppresses tumors, and allows them to live a long life. To find out how their genes accomplish this, scientists recently crossed a bowhead whale with a mouse. It’s true. Read about it here. The only downside, scientists report, is feeding this whale-mouse 5000 pounds of cheese every day.
It’s all true. You read it on the Internet.
Whales have it pretty easy most of the time, except when they’re being harpooned by humans or being eaten alive by killer whales, which are really not whales at all, but rather really big dolphins. A whale can dine on seafood simply by swimming with its mouth open. Humans aren’t supposed to eat with their mouths open, but if you’re a whale it’s your job! If someone tells a whale that it’s “big as a whale,” it’s not an insult. No one expects whales to diet or lose weight; they’re whales, after all.
And whales have blowholes on the top of their heads, which is kind of cool. Imagine the fun things you could do with a blowhole on top of your head. Like spouting water. Imagine how you would stand out in a family photo if you were spouting water out of your head. I wonder if scientists can insert a blowhole gene into human DNA. Probably not. But maybe they could insert it into a mouse. I think a gargantuan mouse with a blowhole would be interesting to look at and could probably land its own reality TV show. The future has so many possibilities.
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