• Thorned_Rose@sh.itjust.works
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    2 days ago

    Damn, some months ago I came across a void for adoption that had very unusual white flecks on its body. Now I’m even more sad I didn’t adopt him 😿

    • NekuSoul@lemmy.nekusoul.de
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      4 days ago

      Considering that this mutation seems to be caused by a chunk of missing DNA, as the article suggests, that’s actually quite fitting.

        • ebolapie@lemmy.world
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          3 days ago

          Well you read it wrong. I made it more verbose, and I hope it helps:

          “Your humorous observation that the cat superficially resembles a printout from a laser printer that is running out of toner is actually quite an apt metaphor for what is going on genetically.”

  • wise_pancake@lemmy.ca
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    4 days ago

    When they didn’t find the KIT gene to be causing the whiteness, the scientists turned to something more dramatic: sequencing the salmiak cats’ entire genome

    OMG you can’t just ask a cat why it’s white!

    Also pretty neat that the gene responsible for cat colouring is called KIT, science proves we named kitties correctly.

    • Lemminary@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      pretty neat that the gene responsible for cat colouring is called KIT, science proves we named kitties correctly

      Me side-eyeing the Sonic hedgehog protein that “regulates the embryonic morphogenesis in all animals”. 😒

  • niktemadur@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    This new cat color was detected around 5 megaparsecs distance from the Milky Way, in the general direction of the Leo constellation, using the Very Large Cat Ear Antenna Array at the 21 cm wavelength of the microwave part of the spectrum.

  • BorgDrone@lemmy.one
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    4 days ago

    Cats with the unusual coat – known as ‘salmiak cats’ (which translates as ‘salty liquorice’)

    A better translation would be ‘ammonium chloride’, because that’s what salmiak is.

      • BorgDrone@lemmy.one
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        4 days ago

        That is salmiak flavored licorice, it’s not salmiak. Just like a bag of paprika flavoured crisps says ‘paprika’ on the front, doesn’t mean that paprika is another word for crisps.

        The only relation between licorice and salmiak is that it’s used to flavour a specific type of licorice.

        It’s also used in fertilizer, as flux for soldering or galvanizing metal, in batteries, and lots of other applications.

        You can also buy salmiak powder as a form of candy on it’s own.

    • nocturne@sopuli.xyz
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      4 days ago

      I doubt many people how ammonium chloride tastes, whereas I think most do know what both salt and licorice taste like.

      • BorgDrone@lemmy.one
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        4 days ago

        But it tastes nothing like salt and licorice. It tastes like salmiak (a.k.a. ammonium chloride). Who hasn’t had salmiak at least once in their life?

          • BorgDrone@lemmy.one
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            4 days ago

            No. It is added to certain types of licorice candy to add flavor but salmiak is it’s own thing.

            • Tessellecta@feddit.nl
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              3 days ago

              My chemistry teacher once made salmiak as a demonstration. The only experiment we were ever allowed to taste and quite cool to look at too.