Similar Heart

The animals are sometimes called `horizontal humans`. Although they are more distantly related to us than, for example, the great apes - pigs are about the right size, and so are their organs. A 75kg pig has the same-sized heart as a 75kg human, with the same pumping capacity. In theory it should be possible to farm pigs for their organs, much as we now farm them for bacon. But there are problems. Our immune system is designed to attack any foreign material that enters the body. Many human to human transplants are only possible with powerful drugs that suppress the immune system and prevent it from treating the new organ or tissue as a huge infection and rejecting it. Doctors try to match donors to recipients to keep rejection to a minimum, but the problems are greater with pigs. If an unmodified pig heart were given to a human, the reaction would be so violent that the heart would turn black in 15 minutes and be virtually destroyed in 30.They are an important step towards `knock-out` pigs, meaning animals where the specific gene that causes the human immune system to reject pig organs is made inactive - or knocked out. The all-female litter of five lacks one of its two alpha gal genes (which put a sugar on pig cells to which the human immune system reacts aggressively). When an all-male litter is born next month (also lacking one of its two alpha gal genes) it will be possible to mate the two animals. A new breed of pig will be created where every fourth offspring will have no alpha gal gene at all, making it a true `knock out` and an ideal source of spare parts for humans.

Ultimate pig.. 

David Ayares, vice president of research for PPL Therapeutics (the company that helped clone Dolly the Sheep), says it is only the first step and speaks of a need for further modifications before the company can create the `ultimate pig`. How to deal with adverse immune reactions and conduct trials with primates before human clinical trials can begin. There will also be a need to ensure that pig diseases do not cross to humans, and to establish whether a heart that will serve a pig for its 30-year life span will last longer in humans. 

Cloned Piglets..

The five cloned piglets - Noel, Angel, Star, Joy and Mary - have been genetically modified so humans will not reject their internal organs. This opens up the possibility of pig to human transplants, which may save the lives of many seriously ill people.

Are pig to human transplants necessary?

There are currently thousands of people in around world waiting for a transplant of a kidney, pancreas, heart, lungs, liver, or a combination of these organs. On average, adults have to wait more than one year for a new kidney. There is a clear demand. Efforts are being made to increase the donation of human organs - the supply is still not high enough, though some argue that pig to human transplants would be unnecessary if the taking of healthy organs from the dead was mandatory.

Would people accept pig organs?

There may be a degree of revulsion at killing an animal to save a human, but some could feel happier carrying the organ of a dead pig than a dead human. Pigs are already bred and killed for food, but some vegetarians and vegans might feel uneasy about making such use of an animal. People who follow Jewish and Muslim eating codes forbidding the consumption of pork may also have objections.

TTT

Tiger Temple, or Wat Pha Luang Ta Bua, is a Theravada Buddhist temple in Saiyok District, Kanchanaburi western Thailand. It was founded in 1994 as a forest temple and sanctuary for wild animals, among them several tigers, the majority of which are Indochinese tigers except Mek, who is a Bengal Tiger. It is possible that some may be the newly discovered Malayan Tigers, as well as cross breeds or hybrids.In 1999 the temple received the first tiger cub, one that had been found by villagers; it died soon after. Later, several tiger cubs were given to the temple. As of July 2014, the total number of tigers living at the temple has risen to 135. Tiger feeding times 1.30pm/ 2.15pm/ 3pm For 45 min. We will have a chance to play and exercise with Tiger cubs. From the ages 6 to 8 months.The monks give us toys for the cubs to chase and jump after.When we have tied them out we will get a chance to hand wash our Tiger.

The temple sanctuary is also home to several herds of deer as well as peacocks, hornbills, water buffalo, cows, goats, horses and boars.      

                                   

Thor Heyerdahl

During World War II, Heyerdahl served in the Free Norwegian military group as a parachutist. He served to cultural anthropology after the war, seeking to prove that people of Polynesia had ancestral ties to the ancient Peruvians. This theory went against all prevailing scientific thought at the time, which held that the islands were populated by people from South Asia.To prove his theory, Heyerdahl enlisted five friends to join him on an amazing journey. He built Kon-Tiki, a roughly 40-foot log raft out of balsa wood, similar to those used in ancient times. On April 28, 1947, Heyerdahl and his crew departed Callao, Peru. They spent 101 days at sea, eventually crashing onto the shore of an uninhabited atoll near Tahiti. During their dangerous voyage, Heyerdahl and his crew faced rough seas, sharks and even curious whales while covering approximately 4,300 miles.A skilled storyteller, Heyerdahl wrote about his experiences in the best-selling book Kon-Tiki. The work was a global hit and was translated into 65 languages. A documentary about the voyage also won an Academy Award in 1951. While hugely popular with the public, Heyerdahl found himself under fire from the scientific community for his journey. It was widely felt that Heyerdahl's aquatic adventure did little to substantiate his claims regarding the cultural ancestry of Polynesia.
Later Expeditions
In 1953, Heyerdahl led an archaeological expedition to the Galapagos Islands. There, he found pottery that linked the islands to early Ecuadorian and Peruvian Indian cultures. Two years later, Heyerdahl led one of the first scientific explorations of Easter Island, where he would discover evidence of possible South American ties. This trip became the basis for the 1958 bookThe Secret of Easter Island.
Returning to the sea, Heyerdahl tried to prove that the ancient Egyptians could have sailed to the Americas. He built the boat Ra—named after the Egyptian sun god—out of papyrus reed for his first attempt in 1969. While that effort failed, he managed to make it from Morocco to the Bahamas in Ra IIthe following year.
In the late 1980s, Heyerdahl focused his attention on the Tucume pyramid complex. He again tackled pyramid excavation in the 1990s on the Spanish island of Tenerife, in the Canary Islands. The step pyramids he uncovered now make up the Chacona Pyramid Ethnological Park there.

Long-nosed Chimaera

Rarely ever seen, the long-nosed chimaera is an oddity among oddities. All chimaeras are poorly understood, but the long-nose, with its whip-like tail and long snout, is especially so. The group branched off from sharks, its closest relative, around 400 million years ago and have remained a distinct, and distinctly odd, lineage ever since and have been basically unchanged since they shared the Earth with dinosaurs. Like sharks and rays, chimaeras have a skeleton made of cartilage. An extremely weird looking fish was snagged recently in the frigid artic waters off northern Canada and after some confused speculation about what it even is, researchers have identified it as the super rare long-nosed chimaera.The spooky, deep sea fish has a long nose, menacing mouth, and a venomous spine atop its gelatinous grey body and was caught near the northernmost province of Nunavut in Davis Straight.Researchers, who at first believed the odd fish was the similarly freakish goblin shark, say the long-nosed chimaera likely makes its home at depths not often visited by humans.‘Potentially, if we fish deeper, maybe between 1,000 and 2,000 metres (3,000 to 6,000 feet), we could find that's there's actually quite a lot of them there,’ University of Windsor researcher Nigel Hussey told CBC. ‘We just don’t know.’ 

‘Only one of these fish has previously been documented from the

Hudson Strait,’ Hussey said. Like all chimaeras, the long-nosed species is a distant relative of sharks and rays.The long-nosed chimaera has a whip-like tail and can grow to around three feet long.The chimaera is one of the world's oldest species of fish.It goes by various names including ratfish, rabbitfish, and ghostsharks.But they aren't sharks. Most species of chimaera live their lives in the dark, deep sea abyss. The enigmatic fish has its closest cousin in the shark, but the chimaera is much less common and for less studied.Most species of chimaera have a mildly venomous spine on their back. The long-nosed chimaera is no exception.Some species of chimaera are even eaten as food in some parts of the world.But the enigmatic fish is largely restricted to deep ocean waters, putting it out of reach to most fishermen and scientists.For these reasons, the strange creatures are poorly studied and understood.