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from the How-About-Colour-Changing...People? dept.
Recently on Last Week Tonight John Oliver discussed the problem of nuclear waste storage, which despite a number of attempts to designate a central storage site is still stored in "temporary" sites throughout the US.
The idea of a central nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain was raised again. However one additional problem, highlighted by a consultation in 1981 by the US Department of Energy, was how to design radiation warnings which could be understood tens of thousands of years into the future even though language, culture, and iconography may undergo significant changes.
And on that note, here's an old guardian article on how colour-changing cats might be the solution.
In 1984, writer Françoise Bastide and semiotician Paolo Fabbri suggested the answer could lie in breeding animals that "react with discoloration of the skin when exposed" to radiation. "[Their] role as a detector of radiation should be anchored in cultural tradition by introducing a suitable name (eg, 'ray cat')."
And following up on that is the project The Ray Cat Solution, in conjunction with Bricobio, the Montréal biology maker community:
New Hampshire Institute of Art's Type 1 class has joined forces with Bricobio and The Raycat Solution to help insert Raycats into the cultural vocabulary.
While Bricobio works towards genetically altering cats so they change color when in the presence of radioactive material, the NHIA Type 1 class is working to insert the idea that if a cat changes color, that space might be dangerous to others.
There is an associated film on the subject on Vimeo.
Originally spotted through the 99% Invisible Episode "Ten Thousand Years"
(Score: 5, Insightful) by qzm on Sunday August 27 2017, @10:14AM (1 child)
Sorry bad form to reply to myself of course, just to add a few more details.
a) I just noticed the 'New Hampshire Institute of Art's Type 1 class', now this BS makes a WHOLE lot more sense.
and
b) 10,000 years, and they have not considered their genetics efforts on the cats may drift? really?
Not the sharpest knives in the drawer I am suspecting, no doubt this is primarily a state $$$$ funding fishing trip.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 28 2017, @02:30PM
Especially given that there's not much evolutionary pressure to keep that colour-change trait. If you want that trait to survive, it must be advantageous to the cat, as in, make it more likely for the cat to survive if it has that trait.