Scientists Enable Salmon to Birth Trout

Scientists in Japan have succeeded in causing salmon to give birth to trout. Yep, you read that correctly: By transplanting the “primordial germ cells” — specialized tissue in embryonic fish that will eventually develop into sexual organs — of a North American rainbow trout into the embryos of young masu salmon, researchers at the Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology produced baby trout and, presumably, some extremely alarmed salmon mothers. The scientists say that the technique could be used to boost populations of endangered or commercially valuable fish. Enviros stressed that the procedure is no substitute for habitat protection. No one, strangely, seemed to have anything to say about the mind-farking, galactic weirdness of the whole thing.