The Problem With Super-Muscly Pigs
By Judith Benz-Schwarzburg & Arianna Ferrari,
Slate
| 06. 03. 2016
Animal research is moving rapidly in two divergent directions.
Research on animal cognition, behavior, and welfare is teaching us that many animal species have complex cognitive and emotional lives and needs, which are linked to the way they experience and explore their surroundings. For instance, pigs are quite advanced: They have long-term memory and are sensitive to the emotions of other pigs. They can also use mirrors to locate food behind barriers and can determine whether humans are paying attention to them by looking at people’s heads. There lies a danger in underestimating such capabilities: If animals live in a very restricted environment without any cognitive or social challenges, preventing them from expressing species-typical behavior, they can experience welfare problems. Research insight into animal cognition is giving us—or should be giving us—increased empathy for other species and better recognition of their needs.
At the same time, new gene-editing technologies are allowing scientists to design animals in ways that maximize their economic value as food sources. These technologies permit the direct manipulation of virtually any gene of a living organism...
Related Articles
By Annika Inampudi, Science | 07.10.2025
Before a baby in the United States reaches a few days old, doctors will run biochemical tests on a few drops of their blood to catch certain genetic diseases that need immediate care to prevent brain damage or other serious...
By Geoffrey A. Fowler, The Washington Post | 07.17.2025
Nearly 2 million people protected their privacy by deleting their DNA from 23andMe after it declared bankruptcy in March. Now it’s back with the same person in charge — and I still don’t trust it.
Nor do the attorneys general...
By Elizabeth Dwoskin and Yeganeh Torbati, The Washington Post | 07.16.2025
A group of well-heeled, 30-something women sat down to dinner last spring at a table set with pregnancy-friendly mocktails and orchids, ready to hear a talk about how to optimize their offspring.
Noor Siddiqui, the founder of an embryo-screening start-up...
By Suzanne O'Sullivan, New Scientist | 07.09.2025
Rare diseases are often hard to spot. They can evade detection until irreversible organ damage or disability has already set in. Last month, in the hope of preventing just this type of harm, the UK’s health secretary, Wes Streeting, announced...