More from Cartoon Brew: They have a first look at Okami kodomo no ame to yuki, a new 2D anime feature directed by Mamoru Hosoda. The title translates as The Wolf Children Ame and Yuki. Here’s the basic press release: “From the director of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and Summer Wars, the story of a college student named Hana who marries a ‘wolf man’ and gives birth to two wolf children. When the wolf man dies, Hana and the children move from the city to a quiet rural town.” The film is being distributed by TOHO Studios, and it’s set for release (at least in Japan) this July. There’s not much yet on the film’s web site (and what’s there is in Japanese), but they’ll add to it as the year goes along.

image c. 2012 TOHO Studios

The Cartoon Brew website has just (2 January) posted an admittedly incomplete preview list of 19 animated feature-length films announced for release during 2012.

Many such as Madagascar 3, Ice Age: Continental Drift, and Norm of the North will feature anthropomorphized animals. However, Japanese film The Wolf Children, featuring two human-wolf hybrid children, sounds likely to especially appeal to Furry fans:

Okami kodomo no ame to yuki (The Wolf Children Ame and Yuki). From the director of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and Summer Wars, the story of a college student named Hana who marries a “wolf man” and gives birth to two wolf children. When the wolf man dies, Hana and the children move from the city to a quiet rural town.

Book cover by Rukis

After a long journey, up-and-coming artist and writer Amy "Ringshadow" Meister (FA) has entered the publishing market with her first e-book, Rainbow in the Dark (originally named "Like a Rainbow in the Dark", as a tribute to the Ronnie James Dio song of the same name).

The story, set in an anthropomorphic/furry universe, concerns a closet-gay wolf-raccoon hybrid named Marcus Midnight, a fictional rock star, and his power-metal band Guillotine. After a successful musical career spanning twelve years and six hit albums, Marcus feels burned-out and extremely lonely.

British medical researchers are calling for tighter regulation on research involving animals with human tissue or genes, while cautiously approving some experiments, the BBC reports.

Professor Christopher Shaw highlighted objectionable 'category three' experiments such as:

• the mixing of non-human primate and human cells to make an embryo
• the mixing of human and non-human gametes (reproductive cells)
• the replacement of monkey brain cells with human ones to gain human characteristics

Dr Robin Lovell-Badge suggested a gap between fantasy and reality:

Everyone laughs at talking meerkats and cats with opposable thumbs, but if we were actually doing that in the labs I don't think people would be so happy.

Read: Animals containing human material (synopsis) – Exploring the boundaries (evaluation)

Wired UK and BBC News report that the mitochondrial DNA in all polar bears today descends from a single Irish female brown bear who lived 20,000 to 50,000 years ago.

Read more: Ancient Hybridization and an Irish Origin for the Modern Polar Bear Matriline

    
Sooner Dead: A D&D Gamma World Novel
Mel Odom (Wizards of the Coast, Feb 2011)
Paperback $7.99 (307 pages); Kindle $6.39

“Sooner Dead” is the first novel (of two so far) based on Dungeons & Dragons spinoff “Gamma World”.

The setting's premise is that a Hadron Collider accident in 2012 destroys civilization. 150 years later, “[survivors] must contend with radioactive wastes, ravaged cities, and rampant lawlessness. Against a nuclear backdrop, heroic scavengers search crumbled ruins for lost artifacts while battling mutants and other perils.”

Mel Odom is a veteran writer of authorized-series melodramatic paperback novels who, probably not coincidentally, lives in Oklahoma, “the Sooner State”.

Don’t look for any deep characterization or character development, just non-stop action. The mutants include many talking humanoid animals, which is how this novel qualifies as Furry.

Not wanting to let Arizona get all the glory, the Ohio Senate has passed a bill banning the creation of "human-animal hybrids."

The bill was supported by the Ohio Christian Alliance and threatens violators with up to a year in jail, and a minimum fine of $250,000 if they make a profit.

Politico notes the Arizona state legislature's attempt to ban human-animal hybrids. [Bos'n]

Senate bill 1307, which passed 16-12, prohibits (among other things):

• creating or attempting to create an in vitro human embryo by any means other than fertilization of a human egg by a human sperm.
• creating or attempting to create a human-animal hybrid
• transferring or attempting to transfer a human embryo into a nonhuman womb
• transferring or attempting to transfer a nonhuman embryo into a human womb, and
• transporting or receiving for any purpose a human-animal hybrid

The Melbourne Herald Sun reports development of pig lungs compatible with human blood. Such organs could fill a real need; 200 died last year on waiting lists in Australia alone.

The genetically-modified pigs do not express a certain antigen that causes the blood to clot. Research on such "knock-out" pigs has been going on for over two decades.

There is an ongoing debate about the ethics of creating such "chimeras." Still, replacement of human heart valves with pig valves or cow cardiac tissue is already widespread.

Medgadget.com has an interesting article about animal/human cross-breeding that is quite interesting.
The full article is Here

"The mixing of humans and animals in the name of medicine has been going on for decades. People are walking around with pig valves in their hearts and scientists have routinely injected human cells into lab mice to mimic diseases."

Two years back, I posted a story on Flayrah about the Human-Rabbit experiment run by Chinese scientists.

Last year, I posted information about another article debating the ethical ramifications of blending human and animal genetics.

Well, as it turns out, it's back in the news again. Seems that turning animals into people (unfortunately, scientists won't touch the other direction) is interesting news for furries and non-furries alike.

Here's the full story, this one by National Geographic. The new twist? Mice with human brains. How far is too far?

Trickster

According to New Scientist, cells from pig-human chimeras show unusual cells: cells with DNA that were created by both human and pig parents. These cells are sensitive to both pig and human diseases, and they could be a way for diseases to pass between species.

A bioengineer from New York Medical College is seeking to patent the hybridization of human/animal embryos. Claiming that his own technology is "beyond the boundaries of human morality," he seeks to patent the technique so that it will never be put into use or tested. More here.

The Washington Post reports here that human-animal chimeras have recently been created by Chinese scientists. The embryos have the nuclear DNA of a human, with the mitochondrial DNA of a rabbit. It is unknown if the embryo could survive to term if implanted into a human mother.

"Idaho Gem", born on May 4th, is the first successful clone from the horse family. The apparently healthy foal is also a mule, giving him the distinction as well of being the first ever clone of a hybrid.

The project to create a mule clone was begun by the University of Idaho in 1998, and has taken 307 attempts to get three full pregnancies. Of these, Idaho Gem is the first birth, with his identical brothers due to be born in June and August.