Song Houyan and Zhong Tao of Fudan University have been working hard getting fish to exhibit behavior similar to that of most Medgadgeteers. While we turn red and say silly things in the presence of estrogen, Houyan and Zhong…
Spent three years cloning estrogen-sensitive genes and injecting them into the fertile eggs of zebrafish.
The modified fish turn green if they are placed into water that is polluted by estrogen, Fudan officials said.
Widely found in water, soil and even food, environmental estrogen poses a great threat to the reproductive abilities of humans and animals, researchers said, noting even a tiny level of estrogen can leave men infertile.
Previous studies suggest average male semen levels around the world have dropped by 40 percent over the past 50 years.
Note to self: when the fish start glowing, get out quickly.
As an aside, that “semen levels” data seems a bit odd. Perhaps something was lost in translation and they meant sperm count? Either way, that’s an odd bit of data.
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