Check out some articles in these categories...
NEWS» FEATURES» SOCIETIES» SCIENCE & TECH» ARTS» SPORTS» OPINION & ANALYSIS» ARCHIVE»More Science stories...
Mini guide to science writingNow, our section isn’t all about the latest in science and technology news – it’s also about us authors and our writing. Each article is unique to its author’s style and perspective (as long as it’s not a product of churnalism…).Read more...
AMS Predicts Higher Energies of Positrons in Space
The team behind the $1.5 billion Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) has announced it has detected an excess of particles, known as positrons, at high energies that could point way towards possible detection of dark matter.Read more...
A Cosmologist’s Gold Mine
Data acquired by the European Space Agency’s €600 million Planck surveyor satellite, launched in 2009, has provided the most detailed picture yet of the universe’s cosmic microwave background (CMB); revealing details about its birth and first instants. Scientists now peg the age of the universe at 13.Read more...
You are here: Science & Tech » Science » New type of defence dog – with porcupine spikes
New type of defence dog – with porcupine spikes
Published 13th Mar 2012
A new hybrid defence dog has been bred in the USA to have porcupine spikes instead of fur.
Scientists took German shepherd embryos and then used a genetic model of a porcupine to modify the dogs’ genetics so they encoded for spikes.
The spikes work in a similar way to those on a porcupine - when the dog gets angry or scared it raises them in an attempt to look more threatening in order to scare off the threat.
When the dog is relaxed the spines lay down flat against the dog’s skin and are not at all dangerous, in fact they look very similar to the dog’s natural fur.
Although only a handful of these animals have been bred so far, the company who designed them are aiming to trial them in police and defence work.
Your thoughts...