“The Center for Postnatural History”

We’ve always known that scientists have created some pretty strange things. Popular culture agrees, giving us ideas like Frankenstein and Soylent Green and the Hulk. But now, you can actually see all of these creations under one roof. The “Center for Postnatural History” in Pittsburgh was opened last year by Richard Pell, an electronic media professor at Carnegie Melon University. Pell is very aware how controversial some of the creatures might be, so he keeps the language and labels very neutral to try to create an environment where “activists and scientists can run into each other, feel comfortable and maybe even blow each others’ minds.”

Three notable displays are Freckles the goat, GloFish®, and some leaves from a genetically modified African chestnut tree. Freckles was genetically engineered to produce in her milk the same material that makes spider silk, by Utah genetics professor Randy Lewis (who also happens to enjoy farming). This silk, which is stronger than Kevlar, could be used for everything from bulletproof vests to ligament repair. After her death, Freckles was stuffed and displayed in Richard Pell’s museum.

GloFish® are regular aquarium fish that have been engineered to produce the proteins that make jellyfish fluorescent. And the African chestnut tree has a wheat gene that makes it immune to a fungal disease that almost wiped out normal types of the tree.

This museum features many, many other post-natural species. Personally, I think the museum awesome and I might look into visiting it sometime because I’m interested in this stuff. There are many natural history museums where we can learn a lot about dinosaurs and evolution, but it would be harder to apply it to research that’s going on right now. “Center for Postnatural History” would not only generate much discussion, but it might also inspire people to come up with brilliant new ideas.

Sources:

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/humans’-living-creations-put-display

http://www.postnatural.org/

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2012/jan/14/synthetic-biology-spider-goat-genetics