Comments on: Life Without Germs In a Laboratory

By: Firebrand38

Firebrand38 — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 04:21:34 +0000

OK kids,gather round. The scientist who founded the Notre Dame program left and started his own facility to produce these animals. http://www.time.com/time/print.....10,00.html

Myles you are correct. Following the above link leads to an article with Dr Reyniers about why these animals were created.

It’s a bit more involved than seeing how long we live without germs but the writer was probably limited to space and facing a deadline.

There were a couple of government grants to see how infections developed in germ free animals as an analog to humans http://www.jimmunol.org/cgi/co.....ct/84/1/27

What happened to the Dr.can be found at http://www.rgicr.org/RGI_history.htm

By: Binky, age 3 & 1/2

Binky, age 3 & 1/2 — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 03:31:36 +0000

And the animals are still alive?

By: Myles

Myles — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 20:44:26 +0000

What might the purpose of this experiment have been? I really think some other useful experiment was going on the the magazine just made up a story that they thought would sound good to the readers.

By: dculberson

dculberson — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 20:39:11 +0000

They are made to drink nothing but germicidal solution before being allowed into the lab. Turns out they don’t live all that long.

By: glindsey

glindsey — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 15:20:01 +0000

SSSSHHHH! You’re destroying their Space Age Optimism!

By: mrchurchill109

mrchurchill109 — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 12:49:12 +0000

Uhhhhh…what about the internal flora in the animals’ GI tracts? Not seeing how this one could work…