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Asked by lou96 to Charlie, Eoin, Jemma, Julian, Steve on 22 Mar 2011. This question was also asked by i69deardre.
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Eoin Lettice answered on 21 Mar 2011:
Hi lou,
I didn’t realise you could grow a human ear on a rat but presumably that is only possible under tightly controlled, laboratory conditions. It would be impossible to get a human to stay in a petri dish for long enough to grow a whole rate on it. Anyway, a rat is a lot more complicated than a human ear – lots of different types of tissue.
On the whole, I don’t think this is possible!Eoin
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Stephen Moss answered on 21 Mar 2011:
Hi Lou and Deardre
Ha – the ear-rat and rat-ear questions just keep coming. 🙂 I love this idea (or id-ear), but even the awesome power of genetics would not allow you to grow a rat on your ear.
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Charlie Ryan answered on 22 Mar 2011:
hi lou and i69deardre! I can’t believe that two people have asked the same crazy question! Do you know each other???!
I remmber seeing that rat (i think it was a mice actually – there much more populsar to experiment on) with an ear on its back on tv some years ago! This mouse has been called the vacanti mouse mouse (adter the scientist that did it), and the ear on its back was made from cow cells!! The mouse was not genetically engineered though -sorry! The ear was placed on its back duwing an operation i think.
What about having the rat with the implanted ear implanted onto your ear?? You’d then have three ears – better hearing surely – and a animal companion who woul never leave your side!!! -
Julian Rayner answered on 22 Mar 2011:
Would you want to? Sadly, the answer is no, because even if you theoretically could, it would be illegal – it is against the law to create hybrids of humans and animals.
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