How To Build A Dragon Or Die Trying: A Satirical Look At Cutting-edge Science by Paul Knoepfler & Julie Knoepfler

Author:Paul Knoepfler & Julie Knoepfler [Paul Knoepfler]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: World Scientific Publishing Company
Published: 2019-06-25T00:00:00+00:00

Figure 4.9. A normal (control) mouse brain (left), and a brain from a mouse of the same age that lacks two Myc family genes, c-Myc and N-Myc (right). Both images are taken using the same magnification and provide a top view of each brain. The different parts of the normal brain are labeled with arrows. Note, that the mouse lacking the c-Myc and N-Myc genes (the MYC double mutant) has a much smaller brain than a normal mouse, although all the various key parts of the brain are still present to some degree. Image credit: Knoepfler lab.

It’s also not such a stretch to imagine our dragon becoming an extremely enthusiastic killer, perhaps even of humans. After all, in many (if not most) artistic or mythological works, dragons are instinctual killers. Our dragon could even end up being outright evil. What would we do then? Some of these inclinations and behaviors could be instinctual and difficult to change. The biological basis of instinct isn’t well understood, but is thought to be attributable to certain genes.

J.R.R. Tolkien recommended to “never laugh at live dragons” and we don’t plan to. But we believe our new dragon would need a very good sense of humor too, especially once it realizes that we two puny humans are its creators. Unfortunately, there isn’t much science on how a sense of humor develops in different kinds of brains.

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