Artist 'invents' glowing mutant bunny


French genetic engineers have crossed a rabbit with a jellyfish - and
produced a bunny that glows in the dark.

Eduardo Kac, a French artist who lives in Chicago, came up with the
idea and persuaded the genetic engineers to mix the jellyfish DNA
with the rabbit for his latest piece of performance art.

The resulting animal Alba looks like any other rabbit but, when she's
exposed to ultra-violet light, her fur, whiskers and eyes glow green.

Kac, 38, had hoped that Alba would be able to bounce around a
specially-built living room for the sake of his art, but animal activists
have forced him to keep her back at the laboratory.

Critics have branded Kac's "Green Fluorescent Protein Bunny" project
sick, but he has hit back saying: "It is a new era, and we need a new
kind of art. It makes no sense to paint as we painted in the caves."

Woodland Hastings, a Harvard biologist who helped discover the
jellyfish's glowing gene, added: "There's nothing dangerous about it,
as far as we know. But the project is rather frivolous. There are many
more important things you can do with these genes."

Last updated: 16:21 Tuesday 19th September 2000.

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