"NASA to Start Radiating Monkeys," noted Chris Baker (of Wired), "The kind of headline that should be followed by 'NASA to Fire PR Firm.'"
The experiments will bombard squirrel monkeys (like the lil guy above) with radioactivity to explore the possible effects of radiation in space on human astronauts. Warning: eventually, revenge will come. Oh, and then there's this possibility.
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Isn't that how Monkey (from Dial M for Monkey) gained his super powers?
Eventually, those same astronauts are going to be whipped through a time warp and find themselves face to face with the super-intelligent offspring of those irradiated monkeys. We've seen this movie before.
Project X?
Yeah you beat me by 10 seconds, I was thinking Project X too!
Has NO ONE at NASA ever seen a B grade movie from the 50s? Geez!
Also, monkeys are cute.
as if we did not know they will die, they need to prove it way too many times, don't get it.
Yes, they're cute and helpless and adorable - but in my opinion this kind of this is necessary, at least on some level before we send people out of low-earth orbit and into some of the further depths of the highly-radioactive space surrounding us.
Does that mean that this isn't terrible? No, it absolutely is terrible, many scientists running these experiments would tell you this first-hand; it can really wear on a person and they aren't immune to it.
But, would I rather learn about this stuff in-depth on a somewhat practical level before sending an astronaut into space to experience it first-hand? A thousand times yes. As far as people go, I consider our astronauts to be incredibly valuable resources - and actually, I can think of very few people who I can hold in higher esteem.
These are people who are constantly putting themselves at incredible risk for science, human advancement, and Earth as a whole - including this species of cute little monkeys. I think it's important that we do our best to make sure these people encounter as little risk as possible.
Isn't the U.S. unemployment rate high enough that we shouldn't have to resort to monkeys?
-- MrJM
I think they mean NASA is going to start emitting monkeys.
I see the title has been changed from "radiating" to "irradiating". I'm relieved to learn that there will not be a stream of monkeys being ejected from NASA.
from the post: "NASA to Start Radiating Monkeys"
as typos go, that one actually sounds like fun waste of tax dollars.
torture is often noble
I really hope they used the term "Radiating" deliberately. This produces a much more amusing image than poor cute little spider monkeys dropping dead.
Reading the article, they intend to irradiate the monkeys with the same low levels of radiation that astronauts on long missions like one to Mars will get to assess the effect of chronic exposure of low level radiation on the nervous system. Hopefully, none of them will die or even get sick...and if they do it will mean real problems for human exploration of space.
i read the same article, not sure when the monkeys consented.
The question is: How many will become ill, at what dosages, how, how badly -- and what can be done to reduce those effects.
Like it or not, unless you want to volunteer to be an experimental animal yourself, some other critter does need to get used. Computer models just can't do the job when you're talking about whole-body studies, and they're barely adequate even for single tissues in isolation.
BTW, anyone who has worked with monkeys in a lab will tell you that the little buggers are a lot less cute than they seem from a distance. They bite, they scratch they throw poo and other things, and they've got four hands with which to mess up your attempts to work with them. (For new world monkeys, add the prehensile tail.)
Kinda disappointed, Xeni. When I clicked the link on "revenge will come" I was really expecting to be taken to the IMDB page for Planet of the Apes.
@theawesomerobot: Absolutely. A good researcher, like a good doctor, has to have enough empathy to understand what the experimental subjects are going through, because that's how you spare them unnecessary discomfort... which is actually important if you're going to get accurate results, never mind being ethically desirable.
If i were in a cage in a lab being subjected to radiation against my will, you can bet your ass I'd be biting, scratching and possibly even throwing poo.
But we do have our priorities and when it comes down to it, the advancement of human technology is far inferior to the lives of other animals on the planet, which are basically just garbage for us to treat as pooorly as we want and throw away.. right?
I really thought one of those links was going to be to 28 Days Later trailer....
Okay, everybody calm down! They're IRradiating monkeys. IRradiating. Everything is fine.
Wait, INflammable means flammable?
And after the first one dies, we can get an idea of whether squirrel monkeys grieve.
What is PETA for then, if not to provide human volunteers to replace the monkeys?
If you could get it past the ethical review board, I'm sure you could get plenty of volunteers...of course, you'd probably have to pay them.
that 'revenge will come' pic - am I the only person that still objects to people mixing up monkeys and apes?
Replace "monkeys" by "cockroaches" in the title, and I wonder if we'd see this article and its outraged synopsis.
Is it too early to welcome our new mutant monkey overlords?
But we do have our priorities and when it comes down to it, the advancement of human technology is far inferior to the lives of other animals on the planet
I have my own priorities, thank you, and I'm very happy with them. To paraphrase Penn and Teller, I would personally strangle every chimp on the planet, with my bare hands, to save the life of one crack-addled street bum. You may have your priorities and welcome to them, but I imagine a fair percentage of the population appreciates such human technologies as polio vaccines and insulin.
Back in '53 they didn't have these pesky "ethics" problems.
Sorry about the monkeys, but I think this is a step in the right direction.
Quite. Monkeys are further down the evolutionary ladder, just above humans.
It's that "fuck those primates if it helps primates like me" attitude that made America great!
-- MrJM
am I the only person that still objects to people mixing up monkeys and apes?
Nah. I object, and so does the librarian.
Wow. Fuck NASA. I'm disappointed.
evolutionary ladder...heh.
The NASA folks can torture themselves if they want but leave the monkeys out of it.
Actually, Chris Baker was retweeting Christopher Mims. You should attribute that quote to Mims instead.
Peta is going to love this..
I, for one, feel NASA hasn't irradiated monkeys enough.
"The question is not, can they reason? Nor, can they talk? But can they suffer?"
--Jeremy Bentham
I thought they already knew the effects of radiation on people. Or has all nuclear science since the 30's been for naught?