* * * * *
                                        
                              Little green bunnies
                                        
> “Alba”, the green fluorescent bunny, is an albino rabbit. This means that,
> since she has no skin pigment, under ordinary environmental conditions she
> is completely white with pink eyes. Alba is not green all the time. She
> only glows when illuminated with the correct light. When (and only when)
> illuminated with blue light (maximum excitation at 488 nm (nanometer)), she
> glows with a bright green light (maximum emission at 509 nm). She was
> created with EGFP (Enhanced Green Fluorescent Protein), an enhanced version
> (i.e., a synthetic mutation) of the original wild-type green fluorescent
> gene found in the jellyfish Aequorea Victoria. EGFP gives about two orders
> of magnitude greater fluorescence in mammalian cells (including human
> cells) than the original jellyfish gene.
> 

“Alba, the fluorescent bunny [1]”

Ah, leave it to the French to concoct a gazillion-word manifesto on the
artistic and social æsthetics of mutant green bunnies in French culture (and
I don't mean a yogurt based sauce either).

And oh, by the way, the mutant green bunny actually exists.

[1] http://www.ekac.org/gfpbunny.html

Email Sean Conner at sean@conman.org

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