Researchers breed mice that sing  Posted by Kate Taylor
Japanese researchers say they've created a mouse that sings like
a bird. They say the development could shed light on the
evolution of human language - and, they suggest, lead to the
creation of a talking mouse.  The team at Osaka University's
Graduate School of Frontier Biosciences in western Japan was
working with a group of genetically modified mice prone to
mutation. While they were expecting mice to appear with
different body shapes, the singing mouse was something of a
surprise.  "We checked the newly born mice one by one," lead
researcher Arikuni Uchimura told AFP. "One day we found a mouse
that was singing like a bird." He said the trait is passed on to
future generations and that the lab now has more than 100 mice
chorusing away.  Uchimura says the mice could prove useful in
researching the origins of human language. "Mice are better than
birds to study because they are mammals and much closer to
humans in their brain structures and other biolo