Walking in the Valley A weekly column for those who live and walk in Silicon Valley by Barbara Dahlgren

Are We Mice or Men? Column for the weeks of March 16-30, 2005

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Our daughter Shelly was always too practical for her own good. As a young child she would watch cartoons, see Tom chase Jerry across our TV screen and say, “Yeah, right! Like a mouse could really do that!” Well, my dear Shelly, we may just live long enough to see that happen.

Believe it or not, experiments have produced new born piglets with human blood and sheep with mostly human hearts and livers. These hybrid animals are called chimeras, a term from a Greek mythological character with three heads who was part snake, lion, and goat. A recent article in the San Jose Mercury News reports the Stanford University ethics committee has okayed a project that “transplants human neurons into the brains of mice where, surprisingly, they settle in and feel right at home.” No plans are in effect to have a mouse with a completely human brain but it does remain a “theoretical possibility.”

This actually is nothing new. Harvard has been transplanting stem cells into mice for quite some time and very successfully. The hope is to eventually be able to repair brain damaged areas in humans caused by birth defects, genetic disorders, strokes, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s, Tay-Sachs, Alzheimer’s, and so on. A noble cause, indeed! However, I find it just a little disconcerting that our brain cells seem to feel right at home in a mouse. In fact, I feel a little disconcerted every time I see a mouse. But whether I like it or not the mouse has scampered into my culture and made himself at home. I’m even clicking a mouse as I write this article.

For my thinking it takes a great imagination to see a mouse as cute. What was Walt Disney thinking when he drew Mickey? He wanted to name him Mortimer but his wife wouldn’t let him. It’s a good thing too. Nothing much rhymes with Mortimer. What would we have sung instead of “M-I-C…See you real soon! K-E-Y….Why? Because we like you! M-O-U-S-E”????? Did Walt in his wildest dreams ever think the whole world would be crooning an ode to this rodent? Or that people would actually put mouse ears on their heads? Hey, if it’s good enough for Cubby and Annette, it’s good enough for me.

Mickey has a rat girlfriend named Minnie and two ratlet nephews, Morty and Ferdie. Mighty Mouse sings his operatic aria “Here I am to save the day, which means that Mighty Mouse is on his way.” Yeah, right! Like a mouse is mighty and saves the day! Then we have Danger Mouse, Tom and Jerry mouse, and Amos Mouse who lived with Ben Franklin. By the way, according to Ben and Me, Ben took credit for quite a few of Amos’s ideas but don’t tell anyone. It ruins the illusion of Ben Franklin being a great man. Let’s not forget Stuart Little, Ralph S. Mouse, Fievel Mousekewitz who came to America looking for a better life in An American Tail and the Three Blind Mice who made quite a name for themselves in spite of being handicapped. Then there’s Froggy who went a courtin’ right up to Miss Mousey’s side and said, “Miss Mousey will you be my bride?” Hmmmm? A mouse and frog getting married? That might not be so far fetched in the future.

If not stopped where, will it lead? I’ve seen The Fly (the original with Vincent Price and the remake) and with this new rat research I don’t find it so illogical. Is there some sort of mutant Mouse Man in our future? What will he do when asked, “Are you a mouse or a man?” I see an identity crisis on his horizon. Mouse traps will have to be much bigger, of course, and filled with something heartier than just a piece of cheese. How about a Big Mac and fries? Could you super-size that please? And will we be put on trial for murder when we fill his little rodent body with rat poison? We have a lot to think about, that’s for sure.

But for the time being, the next time Shelly says, “Yeah, right! Like a mouse could really do that!” I’ll clue her in to the latest technology. “Yeah, right, Shelly! Like a mouse might someday really be able to do that!” Excuse me, I’m craving some cheddar.

Be sure to visit this page every week to read the next edition of Walking in the Valley. You can write to the author at bdahlgren@wcgsouthbay.org.