"glowing" news and stories

So, did you hear about the cooked shrimp that glowed in the dark? I realize that sounds like the set-up to a joke, but it's no joke. A Seattle man recently bought some cooked shrimp at his local Thriftway. He ate some of it and then left the rest sitting on his kitchen counter for a moment. When he came back he noticed that in the darkened kitchen the shrimp was glowing, "like a bright eerie light was shining on it."

The FDA has said that they have no plans of looking into the case of the glowing shrimp (sounds like a Nancy Drew mystery) as since no one got sick, it isn't a food safety issue. Apparently, this is not the first time that seafood has glowed in the dark. It is thought to be caused luminescent species of bacteria found in ocean waters that the shrimp picked up while they were alive.

[via Portland Food and Drink]
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Scientists in Taiwan have bred, through transgenic engineering, three glowing pigs. Not only do these pigs glow, they glow green due to jellyfish DNA inserted into the pigs' embryos. Other labs have produced partially green pigs, but these are the first completely colored ones, with everything from green organs to green-tinged eyes and skin. Scientists intend to use green pigs such as these for research purposes, because genetic material taken from them will be easy to spot, due to its color, in ordinary pigs.

Admittedly, these pigs are not currently intended for eating, but suddely "green eggs and ham" seems like more of a possibility, doesn't it?

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Sir John Krebs, a professor and major proponent of genetically modified foods, has made onions shine by modifying it with jellyfish genes. This was shown during a series of lectures that aims to show that genetically modified (GM) foods can be a powerful tool against food shortages among people in places of high population growth.

I wonder why they didn't go for a more subtle showing of the benefits of GM foods. Making an onion glow is probably going to enrage the anti-GM food activists, not persuade them to adopt it.

[Photo Eddie Mulholland]