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  • BBC Wildlife Magazine

    ADAPT OR DIE

    Mar 12, 2020 7 minutes
    By Helen Pilcher

    Warning! You may find the following facts shocking! On a ranch in Utah, there are goats that contain spider DNA. They don’t have eight legs and they can’t spin webs, but the unusual bleaters do have a superpower of sorts. They make spider proteins in their milk. The proteins can be spun into silk and the material is so strong that scientists think one day it could be used to make suspension cables.

    Meanwhile, in Argentina, wealthy polo players are cloning their best ponies. Now copies of elite equines compete in high-profile competitions, whilst in South Korea, cloned sniffer dogs patrol the arrivals lounge at Seoul Incheon Airport.

    Flabbergasted? Then let me drop one more bombshell. I was able to use the Internet to source and buy a genetically modified wolf pup. All grown up, he now lives in our house where I let him sleep on our bed and play with our children. Is it madness? Let me explain…

    Altering course

    For most of the last three billion years or so, life on Earth was shaped by natural forces – such as the changing of the seasons, the shifting. As we spawned technology and dribbled around the globe, things started to change.

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