Beauty is only Fur deep

Our imagination is boundless as a child – an animal can be any shape or colour. However, as one grows up with education, this imagination is likely to give way to realism. No longer is anything imaginable. 

From 2003 to 2013, the author Margaret Atwood wrote a 3-volume novel of a dystopian world devastated by a deadly virus – “Oryx and Crake”, “The Year of the Flood”, “MaddAddam”. What fascinates me about the trilogy is that the world created by Margaret Atwood is one filled with genetic engineered animals which we would never imagine. 

Coming backing to reality, this scenario is soon about to change with the advancement in the technology of genome editing. One interesting example is a genetic engineering lab AgGenetics in Nashville Tennessee. This lab has invented a way to create customisable colour or pattern in the skin or fur of the animal species. The ‘rationale’ outcome is the first creation of White Angus beef cattle, which can now thrive in hot climate countries and be reared out of their native environment. Experiments like these are often bounded by ethical laws of humanity. However, I believe we might be seeing plenty of “designer animals” should these ethical laws not be in place.

For now, as far as White Angus beef cattle go, maybe the idea of designer animal aesthetics in our environment are not unthinkable.