Walt Disney will be clicking his heels in his grave. Japanese scientists have, by promoting the miscopying of DNA from mice to their progeny, randomly produced a mouse that sings very much like a bird. Put aside your repulsion for a moment, and consider the scientific implications of this.

Arikuni Uchimura of the Evolved Mouse Project at the University of Osaka had this to say about the tweeting mouse.

“We are watching how a mouse that emits new sounds would affect ordinary mice in the same group… in other words if it has social connotations,”

You mean, mice that speak to each other, with the sweet dulcent tones of birds?

Well the next step is mice with the capacity for language, surely? Of course it is. That in itself is mind blowing, and has huge implications for the possibilities of use that human society might find for their talking mouse minions.

But in true japanese style, all Arikuni and his colleagues are aiming for something a little more cutesy.

“I know it’s a long shot and people would say it’s ‘too absurd’… but I’m doing this with hopes of making a Mickey Mouse some day,”

Of course they are. They’re japanese.

[Source: PhysOrg.com]