good news for frogs

yahoo reports:

"by Miwa Suzuki Thu Sep 27, 2:54 PM ET
TOKYO (AFP) - Japanese researchers have succeeded in producing see-through frogs, letting them observe organs, blood vessels and eggs under the skin without performing dissections."You can see through the skin how organs grow, how cancer starts and develops," said the lead researcher Masayuki Sumida, professor at the Institute for Amphibian Biology of state-run Hiroshima University. "You can watch organs of the same frog over its entire life as you don't have to dissect it. The researcher can also observe how toxins affect bones, livers and other organs at lower costs," he told AFP. Dissections have become increasingly controversial in much of the world, particularly in schools where animal rights activists have pressed for humane alternatives such as using computer simulations."

the rest of it is here.

as far as i can recall, i never dissected anything at school. we were a bunch of wusses anyway in our early days at spgs. the day we were supposed to look at blood under the microscope, charlotte ward slipped with her scalpel and before she was taken to the nurse, we borrowed some of her blood rather than slice ourselves up. nu - well done you japanese researchers!